JAN  18  1922 


BV  4010  .W537  1921 
Williams,  Charles  David, 

1860-1923. 
The  prophetic  ministry  for 

1-  r\r\::i\r 


THE  PROPHETIC  MINISTRY 
FOR  TODAY 


jrt^g^ 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO   •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA    •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO..  Limited 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OP  CANADA.  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


The  Prophetic  Ministry 
for  Today 


BY    /  ^'i^lOi 


•>  -^^H 


[CHARLES  D.  WILLIAMS 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1921 

All  rights  reserved 


PRINTED  IN  UNITED  STATES  OP  AMERICA 


Copyright,  1921 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  printed.     Published  October,  1921 


FERRIS  PRINTING  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I.  The  Modern  Minister — A  Composite  .       .  7 

II.  The  Prophetic  Succession       ....  26 

III.  The  Prophetic  Inheritance     ....  45 

IV.  The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today        .        .  67 
V.  The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today       .       o  87 

VI.  Critic— Reformer— Prophet   .       .        .       .  II2 

VII.  Prophet  and  Priest I34 

VIII.  The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment    .  157 


Personal  Foreword 

I  FEEL  that  there  is  due  to  the  readers  of  these  lec- 
tures, if  there  be  any,  a  word  of  explanation  already 
given  to  the  hearers  of  them,  as  to  the  conditions 
under  which  they  were  written. 

The  good  ladies  of  a  certain  church  society  in  my 
diocese  publish  annually  a  calendar  of  the  church  year. 
On  the  calendar  is  a  motto  or  text,  intended  to  inculcate 
the  strict  economy  of  time.  But  instead  of  being  placed 
over  the  months  and  weeks  and  days,  it  has,  with  singu- 
lar felicity,  been  put  over  the  picture  of  the  Bishop  which 
supposedly  adorns  one  corner  of  the  calendar.  The  text 
is,  ''Gather  up  the  fragments  that  nothing  be  lost." 

There  could  be  no  watch-word  more  necessary  or 
motto  more  applicable  to  a  modern  Bishop. 

He  is  a  man  "scattered  and  peeled,"  "troubled  about 
many  things,"  distracted  with  various  and  often  mutually 
variant  occupations.  He  must  be  a  man  of  affairs  and 
many  affairs.  He  is  expected  to  fulfill  many  functions. 
He  is  primarily  a  business  man,  an  administrator  and 
executive.  Particularly  he  is  the  "trouble  man"  of  a  large 
corporation.  All  the  "church  quarrels"  gather  about  his 
devoted  head.  He  has  the  responsibility  for  everything 
that  goes  wrong,  often  without  the  authority  to  set  any- 
thing right.  He  serves  as  a  lightning  rod  to  carry  off 
the  accumulated  wrath  of  the  ecclesiastical  heavens.  He 
is  constantly  called  on  to  act  as  a  judge  and  should  have 
a  judicial  temperament.     He  is  also  a  "travelling  man," 


The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

a  kind  of  ecclesiastical  "drummer"  or  salesman.  He  is 
even  sometimes  in  demand  as  a  social  ornament  to  say- 
grace  at  banquets,  make  after-dinner  speeches,  adorn  the 
stage  at  public  meetings,  and  minister  to  the  aesthetic 
needs  of  conventional  society  at  fashionable  weddings, 
baptisms  and  funerals. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  distraction  and  dissipation,  he 
is  expected  to  find  time  and  mind  to  be  a  preacher  and  a 
teacher,  a  scholar  and  a  leader,  and  above  all,  a  man  of 
prayer  and  a  man  of  God ! 

I  never  realized  so  fully  the  handicaps  my  office  and 
occupations  imposed  upon  any  careful  and  scholarly  work 
as  wh^n  I  set  myself  to  the  most  serious  task  of  preparing 
these  Lyman  Beecher  lectures  for  whose  delivery  I  had 
the  great  and  deeply  appreciated  honor  of  being  chosen. 

All  I  could  do  was  to  "gather  up  the  fragments"  of 
my  scattered  mind  and  broken  time  and  the  fast  fading 
reminiscences  of  a  slight  but  obsolescent  scholarship, 
achieved  in  a  day  when  I  had  a  "study"  and  could  read 
books.  I  offer  the  results  with  apology  as  a  "feast  of 
broken  meats."  They  represent  at  least  a  somewhat  ex- 
tended experience  and  deep  convictions,  if  not  profound 
scholarship.  I  hope  my  readers  will  be  as  generous  and 
indulgent  as  were  my  hearers  and  excuse  the  evident 
defects  of  the  work  out  of  consideration  of  the  nature  of 
my  calling  and  occupations. 

I  have  not  attempted  to  change  the  style  of  direct  ad- 
dress to  the  more  literary  form  of  the  written  word,  but 
present  the  lectures  practically  as  they  were  delivered. 


THE  PROPHETIC  MINISTRY 
FOR  TODAY 


THE  PROPHETIC  MINISTRY 
FOR  TODAY 

I 

The  Modern  Minister — A  Composite 

I  HAVE  chosen  for  my  general  subject,  "The  Pro- 
phetic Ministry  for  Today,"  I  begin  with  an  attempt 
at  a  portrait  of  the  "Modern  Minister."  That  pic- 
ture, as  I  see  it,  is  a  synthesis  of  various  faces.  Four 
groups  of  texts  suggest  themselves  as  illustrating  the  four 
faces  which  enter  into  that  synthesis. 

Jeremiah  1 :19.  "Then  the  Lord  put  forth  His  hand 
and  touched  my  mouth.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  me, 
Behold,  I  have  put  my  words  in  thy  mouth."  Jeremiah 
20:9.  "Then  I  said,  I  will  not  make  mention  of  Him,  nor 
speak  any  more  in  His  name.  But  His  Word  was  in 
mine  heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones,  and  I 
was  weary  with  forbearing,  and  I  could  not  stay." 

Malachi  2:7  "For  the  priest's  lips  should  keep  know- 
ledge and  they  should  seek  the  law  at  his  mouth;  for 
he  is  the  messenger  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 

Titus  1 :5.  "For  this  cause  left  I  thee  in  Crete,  that 
thou  shouldst  set  in  order  the  things  that  are  wanting  and 
ordain  elders  in  every  city,  as  I  had  appointed  thee." 

Ezekiel  33  :32.  "And  lo,  thou  art  unto  them  as  a  very 
lovely  song  of  one  that  hath  a  pleasant  voice  and  can  play 
well  on  an  instrument ;  for  they  hear  thy  words  but  they 
do  them  not." 

You  have  all  seen  a  composite  photograph.  You  know 
how  one  is  made.  A  series  of  faces  or  figures  is  thrown 
upon  the  same  sensitive  plate,  each  image  being  exactly 
superimposed  upon  the  last.    The  resulting  picture  is  the 

7 


8  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

composite  of  the  group.  It  assembles  into  one  the  most 
saHent  characteristics  and  recurrent  features  of  the  indi- 
vidual faces  and  gives  as  the  outcome  the  type  of  the  class. 

It  is  fascinating  to  study  such  a  picture,  to  look  now 
from'  the  individual  faces  to  the  composite,  gathering  up 
the  component  features  here  and  there  and  summing 
them  up  in  the  common  synthesis ;  and  again  to  look  from 
the  composite  to  the  individual  faces,  analyzing  the 
synthesis  and  tracing  its  separate  elements  back  to  their 
original  sources.  For  the  composite  is  at  once  "all  and 
in  all." 

Now  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Christian  minister,  as  we 
have  him  today,  is  a  kind  of  composite  photograph  of 
several  historic  figures  that  have  preceded  him.  And  I 
propose  to  take  up  in  this  lecture  in  a  most  brief  and 
sketchy  way,  that  fascinating  study  of  synthesis  and 
analysis ;  to  point  out  certain  historic  elements  of  strength 
and  of  weakness  that  enter  into  the  make-up  of  our  min- 
istry, to  indicate  elements  of  power  that  ought  to  be 
emphasized  and  cultivated  and  elements  of  weakness  and 
degeneracy  that  ought  at  least  to  be  subordinated  and,  if 
possible,  eliminated. 

Four  historic  figures  I  would  sketch  briefly  as  con- 
tributing characteristic  features  to  the  make-up  of  the 
modern  minister: 

1.  The  Hebrew  Prophet.    . 

2.  The  Hebrew  Priest. 

3.  The  Apostolic  Administrator  or  Executive. 

4.  The  Greek  Sophist  or  Rhetorician. 

The  first  three  contribute  elements  of  worth  and  power 
in  descending  or  decreasing  order.  The  last  injects  an 
element  of  essential  weakness  and  degeneracy. 

I.  At  once  the  basal  and  the  noblest  figure  in  this  syn- 
thesis is  the  Hebrew  prophet.    Now  the  Hebrew  prophet, 


The  Modern  Minister — (A  Composite)  9 

as  we  all  know,  was  not  simply  a  predicter  of  future 
events,  as  he  has  very  popularly  been  represented.  He  was 
rather  a  preacher  than  a  predicter,  a  forth-teller  than  a 
fore-teller.  He  was  a  messenger,  an  ambassador,  an  in- 
terpreter between  God  and  man.  He  was  charged  with 
a  burden,  a  word  of  the  Lord  which  he  must  deliver. 
Examine  the  writings  of  the  prophets,  and  you  find  the 
element  of  prediction  comparatively  very  small.  The 
books  are  for  the  most  part  volumes  of  sermons;  and 
when  prediction  does  come  in,  it  is  generally  conditional 
— the  announcement  of  the  inevitable  issues  of  certain 
courses  of  moral  conduct  or  action,  chiefly  on  the  part 
of  the  nation,  if  these  courses  are  persisted  in  to  their 
natural  culmination.  The  prophet  was  always  essentially 
a  preacher.  And,  like  Paul  before  Felix,  he  reasoned 
"of  righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to  come." 
His  field  was  broad.  All  questions  that  involved  right- 
eousness and  justice  were  his  themes.  He  dealt  with  the 
problems  of  social,  political  and  commercial  ethics  even 
more  than  with  those  of  merely  individual  and  personal 
morals.  But  he  was  not  a  professional  preacher.  He 
was  never  ordained  to  his  office  or  function.  He  be- 
longed to  no  guild,  class  or  caste.  With  the  exception  of 
Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  who  were  of  priestly  lineage,  he 
was  a  layman,  as  was  Amos  the  shepherd  and  cultivator 
of  sycamore  figs,  or  Isaiah  the  statesman.  Indeed  the 
figures  of  the  prophet  and  the  priest  frequently  stand 
opposed  to  each  other  in  most  pronounced  antagonism 
throughout  the  Old  Testament.  The  prophet  derived 
his  authority  from  no  ecclesiastical  commission  but 
directly  from  the  mission  of  God  himself.  It  was  the 
:iuthority,  not  of  the  Church,  but  of  a  God-inspired  per- 
sonality. The  burden  of  the  Lord  had  been  laid  upon 
his  spirit  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  upon  his  lips.  And 
that  "word  became  in  his  heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up 


10  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

in  his  bones,  until  he  was  weary  of  forbearing  and  could 
not  stay."  He  must  utter  it  or  be  consumed  by  it.  His 
only  qualifications  were  the  sensitive  conscience,  the  open 
mind,  the  pure  heart  and  attentive  spirit  which  always 
make  the  fit  interpreter  and  transparent  medium  between 
God  and  man. 

He  had  no  salary  and  took  no  tithes,  fees  or  gifts,  at 
least  in  his  later  and  finer  developement.  He  was  gener- 
ally a  man  of  the  people  and  derived  his  support  from  his 
own  toil. 

He  had  no  church  or  pulpit.  He  delivered  his  sermons 
at  no  set  time  or  place.  But  whenever  or  wherever  the 
Divine  afflatus  visited  him,  then  and  there  he  unburdened 
his  soul.  Whenever  and  wherever  the  Word  of  the 
Lord  came  upon  him,  then  and  there  he  spake  it,  whether 
in  the  temple-courts,  the  palace  of  the  king,  the  market 
place  and  streets  of  the  city,  or  the  fields  of  the  country- 
side. He  was  no  man-pleaser,  pandering  to  the  passions 
of  the  masses  or  catering  to  the  prejudices  of  the  classes. 
He  was  the  servant  of  Jehovah  and  he  spake  in  the  fear 
of  the  Lord.  He  was  a  flaming,  incarnate  conscience,  set 
on  fire  from  on  high;  often  esteemed  the  enemy  of  the 
settled  order  or  accepted  disorder  of  church,  society  and 
state,  and  for  that  reason,  winning  for  himself  frequently 
persecution  and  sometimes  martyrdom.  He  spake  simply 
and  only  from  God  to  man,  when  he  was  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  "as  the  Spirit  gave  him  utterance." 

H.  The  Hebrew  priest  was  an  official.  He  was 
trained  for  the  office.  He  bore  the  Church's  commission. 
He  was  duly  ordained.  He  had  professional  and  ecclesi- 
astical functions  to  perform.  He  carried  out  the  ritual. 
He  offered  the  sacrifices  and  presented  the  oflferings  to 
God  on  behalf  of  the  people.  But  at  least  in  his  later 
development,  he  also  had  a  didactic  as  well  as  a  sacerdotal 


The  Modern  Minister — (A  Composite)         U 

function;  he  was  teacher  as  well  as  priest.  He  filled 
the  place  afterwards  specialized  by  the  rabbi. 

In  general  probably  his  teaching  was  chiefly  confined 
to  matters  purely  ecclesiastical.  He  gave  instruction  as 
to  the  proper  sacrifices  to  be  offered,  the  proper  rites 
and  ceremonies  to  be  observed  in  connection  with  the 
public  fasts  and  feasts,  the  observance  of  holy  days  and 
also  the  technically  religious  requirements  of  the  individ- 
ual life.  His  theme  was  religiousness  rather  than  right- 
eousness, and  sometimes  he  made  religiousness  a  substi- 
tute for,  rather  than  a  means  to  righteousness. 

But  gradually  that  teaching  seems  to  have  acquired  a 
moral,  ethical  and  spiritual  character.  Especially  as  in 
later  Jewish  history,  the  fitful  impulses  of  prophecy 
slowly  died  out,  the  priest  stepped  more  and  more  into 
the  prophet's  room  and  fulfilled  as  far  as  he  could  the 
prophetic  function,  not  by  the  delivery  of  occasional 
messages  under  the  Divine  afflatus  but  by  regular  moral 
and  spiritual  instruction.  He  was  the  man  of  knowledge 
and  authority  rather  than  of  inspiration.  This  is  Malachi's 
description  of  the  ideal  priest  of  his  day.  "My  covenant 
was  with  him  of  life  and  peace.  I  gave  them  to  him  that 
he  might  fear  me,  and  he  feared  me  and  stood  in  awe 
of  my  name.  The  law  of  truth  was  in  his  mouth  and 
unrighteousness  was  not  found  in  his  lips.  He  walked 
before  me  in  peace  and  uprightness  and  did  turn  away 
many  from  iniquity.  For  the  priest's  lips  should  keep 
knowledge  and  they  should  seek  the  law  at  his  mouth.  For 
he  is  the  messenger  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  His  function 
was  rather  the  guidance  and  regulation  of  life  by  rule 
and  precept  than  the  inspiration  of  it  by  Divine  impulses. 

These  two  functions  of  the  Old  Testament  prophet  and 
priest  are  plainly  blended  in  the  Christian  ministry  as 
presented  on  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament.  St.  Paul 
makes  much  of  the  gift  of  prophecy  in  the  first  Epistle 


12  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

to  the  Corinthians  and  in  his  Hst  of  the  offices  of  the  min- 
istry in   Ephesians   "prophets"   stand   next   to   apostles. 
I,  These  Christian  prophets  of  the  apostolic  Church  were 
I     probably  what  we  might  call  preachers  on  impulse  and 
If  loccasion,  men  who  spake  not  on  fixed  themes  at  appointed 
bmes  and  places,  stated  preachers  in  settled  pulpits,  but 
unordained,  unprofessional  laymen,  brethren  of  the  con- 
gregation, who  spake  as  the  Spirit  gave  them  utterance, 
much  as  the  early  Quakers  did. 

It  would  be  difficult,  I  think,  to  find  a  distinctly 
sacerdotal  trace  anywhere  in  the  New  Testament  pre- 
sentation of  the  Christian  ministry,  even  though  you 
searched  the  record  with  microscopes.  The  word  ''priest" 
is  never  used  in  connection  with  that  ministry.  The 
Christian  minister  is  the  "apostle"  as  sent  by  Christ,  the 
"prophet"  as  the  inspirational  preacher  of  righteousness, 
the  "evangelist"  perhaps  as  custodian  of  the  tradition  of 
the  oral  gospel,  the  "pastor,"  the  "teacher,"  the  "presby- 
ter or  elder,"  a  term  borrowed  from  the  Jewish  syna- 
gogue to  indicate  an  administrator  of  affairs  but  never 
the  "hiereus,"  the  "sacerdos,"  the  "priest." 

And  yet  is  there  a  priestly  function  inherent  in  the 
very  nature  of  that  ministry.  The  Church  of  Christ 
has  sacraments  to  administer,  and  he  who  administers 
sacraments  is  necessarily  to  that  extent  a  priest.  And 
sacraments  are  in  the  Church  and  given  by  Christ  because 
they  are  deep-rooted  in  the  nature  of  things  and  in  the 
needs  of  the  human  soul.  We  live  in  a  sacramental  world 
and  we  possess  sacramental  natures.  The  heart  craves  such 
expressions  of  the  spiritual  life,  and  whenever  the  sacra- 
mental element  is  banished  from  or  belittled  in  religion, 
that  heart  rises  in  protest.  That  was  one  meaning  of  the 
Oxford  movement;  it  is  the  secret  of  the  development 
of  ritualism,  and  one  basis  of  the  strength  and  growth 
of  the  Roman  Church.     This  is  the  reason,  too,  why 


The  Modern  Minister — (A  Composite)         13 

much  of  our  popular  Protestantism,  its  very  soul  often 
starved  for  lack  of  the  sacramental  life,  is  surely  and 
widely  reacting  from  the  barrenness  of  its  pseudo- 
spiritual  simplicity  and  seeking  a  richer  and  more  posi- 
tively sacramental  ritual  and  cultus. 

But  in  still  another  sense  the  Christian  minister  is  a 
true  successor  of  the  Hebrew  priest.  He  is  not  a  lay- 
man like  the  Hebrew  prophet  called  of  God  occasionally 
to  deliver  His  message  to  His  people.  He  is  an  official 
of  the  Church.  To  the  mission  of  God,  such  as  the 
prophet  had,  is  added  the  commission  of  the  Church.  ■ 
She  formally  appoints  and  ordains  this  particular  prophet 
of  God  to  her  regular  ministry.  She  puts  into  his  hands 
her  sacraments  to  administer,  her  ritual  to  perform,  and 
more  than  that,  her  doctrine  to  teach.  He  has  a  dis- 
tinctly didactic  function  as  had  the  Hebrew  priest.  To 
the  impulsive  inspiration  of  the  prophet  is  added  the 
acquired  equipment  of  knowledge,  learning,  training, 
and  the  formal  gift  of  authority  which  together  consti- 
tute the  accredited  teacher,  such  as  every  organized 
institution  and  every  advanced  civilization  demand.  This 
is  exactly  the  conception  of  the  priest  in  Malachi's 
description,  "He  whose  Hps  keep  knowledge  and  at  whose 
mouth  the  people  shall  seek  the  law." 

Communions  which  stress  historic  continuity  and  sacra-  \ 
mental  values  are  apt  to  emphasize  the  priestly  aspect 
of  the  ministry  at  the  expense  of  the  prophetic.  The 
so-called  free  or  independent  communions  are  apt  to 
develop  the  prophetic  to  the  exclusion  of  the  priestly. 
Both  elements  are  of  value  and  it  is  hoped  that  the 
longed-for  unity  of  the  Christian  Churches  may  accom- 
plish a  true  synthesis. 

And  so  in  the  minister  of  the  Christian  Church 
coalesce  these  two  figures  which  stand  out  distinct  and 
often   mutually   antagonistic   on   the  pages   of   the   Old 


14  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

Testament, — the  prophet  with  his  mission  from  God  and 
the  priest  with  his  commission  from  the  Church.  There- 
fore it  is,  just  because  she  would  so  dehberately  combine 
the  prophet  and  the  priest,  that,  in  the  communion  to 
which  I  belong,  before  the  Church  lays  her  hands  of 
authority  upon  anyone  seeking  her  ministry,  before  she 
gives  her  commission  to  the  candidate  for  "holy  orders," 
she  seeks  first  the  proof  of  his  mission  from  God  and 
asks,  *'Do  you  think  in  your  heart  that  you  are  truly 
called  according  to  the  Will  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ; 
do  you  trust  that  you  are  inwardly  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  take  upon  you  this  office  and  ministration  to 
serve  God  for  the  promoting  of  His  glory  and  the  edify- 
ing of  His  people?" 

HI.  Another  set  of  functions  appears  in  the  apostoHc 
ministry  of  the  New  Testament  for  which  no  exact 
counterpart  can  be  found  in  the  Jewish  Church,  unless 
it  be  in  the  elders  of  the  later  synagogue.  In  his  list 
of  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  for  the  edification  of  the  Church, 
St.  Paul  mentions  ''helps  and  governments."  They  are 
apparently  the  gifts  of  the  organizer,  the  man  of  aflfairs, 
the  administrator  and  executive.  These  functions  seem 
to  have  been  variously  shared  or  divided  among  different 
officials  of  the  apostolic  Church.  Now  it  is  the  "apostle" 
who  exercises  rule  and  governance.  Now  it  is  the 
apostolic  delegate  or  commissary  such  as  Titus  who  was 
"left  in  Crete  to  set  in  order  the  things  left  undone  by 
the  apostle  himself, — appoint  or  ordain  elders  (or 
presbyters)  in  every  city"  for  the  administration  of  the 
affairs  of  the  local  congregations.  And  now  it  is  the 
so-called  "deacons"  or  almoners  who  take  the  charge  of 
the  charities  of  the  Church  off  the  apostles  that  they  may 
be  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  serving  tables  and  give 
themselves  to  the  more  spiritual  functions  of  prayer  and 
the  ministry  of  the  Word. 


The  Modern  Minister — (A  Composite)         15 

It  sometimes  seems  to  me  that  the  modern  Bishop 
derives  more  directly  from  these  seven  "business  mana- 
gers" of  the  book  of  the  Acts  than  he  does  from  the 
apostle.  I  believe  there  is  a  respectable  theory  among 
scholars  which  traces  his  descent  to  these  administra- 
tors or  almoners  of  the  early  Churches.  Certainly  he 
is  frequently  so  immersed  in  affairs,  so  absorbed  in  the 
petty  mechanism  and  routine  of  administration,  that  he 
has  little  time  for  scholarship  or  opportunity  to  develop 
that  spiritual  leadership  which  the  Church  needs  and 
ought  rationally  to  find  in  him.  And  certainly  also  the 
features  of  his  ancestor  or  predecessor,  the  apostolic 
"man  of  affairs,"  stand  out  most  saliently  in  the  modern 
minister,  particularly  the  successful  and  efficient  pastor 
or  rector  of  that  most  popular  and  most  modern  form 
of  ecclesiastical  organization,  the  institutional  church. 
The  gift  that  qualifies  him  for  his  office  is  the  gift  of 
"helps  and  governments,"  of  administrative  and  execu- 
tive ability.  That  gift  is  at  a  premium  in  the  modern 
church  market.  And  a  most  valuable  and  needed  gift 
it  is  in  the  ministry.  A  most  necessary  and  useful  func- 
tion does  the  efficient  organizer  of  religious  activities 
serve  in  the  Church  and  in  the  community.  He  links 
and  harnesses  the  spiritual  forces  and  energies  of  religion 
to  the  largest  service  of  the  commonweal.  To  quote 
another,  "He  strives  to  develop  the  latent  powers  and 
abilities  of  all  the  members  of  his  parish,  young  and 
old.  He  organizes  its  activities  and  relates  them  to  the 
progress  of  Christianity  throughout  the  world.  He 
brings  it  into  contact  with  the  community  at  any  point 
where  such  contact  will  help  every  man  to  a  better 
chance  for  all  good  things.  He  discerns  opportunity  in 
the  community  for  enterprises,  vitally  religious  in  char- 
acter and  large  enough  in  their  dimensions  to  enlist  the 
enthusiastic  personal  effort  of  the  gifted  laymen  of  his 


16  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

church,  who  are  accustomed  to  leadership  in  the  large 
undertakings  of  business  and  professional  life  in  the 
world.  And  all  the  educational,  social,  ethical  and  reli- 
gious interests  of  the  community  appeal  to  him.  He  not 
only  preaches  the  Gospel,  but  he  is  also  the  leader  of  his 
church  in  the  application  of  the  Gospel  to  the  life  of 
the  community." 

All  this  is  well  and  good.  It  is  above  praise.  But 
there  is  danger  in  it.  It  is  the  danger  of  the  over- 
emphasis upon  the  gift  of  "helps  rnd  governments"  to 
the  neglect  of  the  nobler,  more  vital  and  more  spiritual 
functions  of  prayer  and  the  ministry  of  the  word,  even 
the  cultivation  of  personal  religion  in  himself  and  his 
people;  the  danger  that  the  prophet  and  the  priest  shall 
be  merged  and  lost  in  the  mere  man  of  affairs,  who 
finally  degenerates  into  a  busybody,  absorbed  in  "much 
ado  about  nothing."  In  many  a  parish  the  people  are 
perplexed  by  trivial  over-organization  and  exhausted 
by  the  whirl  of  incessant  and  sometimes  insignificant 
activities,  while  their  souls  are  starved  for  the  bread  of 
life,  because  "there  is  a  famine  of  the  Word  of  God" 
in  the  parish.  For  the  Church  is  a  flock  as  well  as  a 
force,  and  often  "the  hungry  sheep  look  up  and  are  not 
fed"  but  driven  to  death.  A  parish  which  begins  by 
running  on  wheels,  by  and  by  contents  itself  with  the 
mere  running  of  wheels  and  finally  runs  to  wheels  alto- 
gether. And  the  spirit  of  the  living  creature  is  not 
always  in  the  wheels,  as  it  was  in  the  prophet's  vision. 
One  of  our  Bishops  was  in  the  habit  of  calling  such  a 
parish  "the  Church  of  the  Holy  Fuss."  It  might  be 
called  "The  Church  of  the  Sacred  Wheels." 

Perhaps  no  warning  is  more  needed  by  the  average 
so-called  successful  church  of  today  than  this, — that  the 
gifts  of  administration  are  valuable  or  even  legitimate 
in  the  Church  only  as  they  eventually  and  efficiently 


The  Modern  AIinister — (A  Composite)         17 

direct  the  vital  forces  of  essential  religion  to  the  up- 
building of  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  and  character 
of  men  and  women,  to  the  "edification  of  the  body  of 
Christ,"  and  the  moral  and  spiritual  uplift  and  better- 
ment of  the  community;  and  that  in  the  face  of  the 
ideal  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  features  of  the  prophet 
and  even  of  the  priest  of  God  always  predominate  over 
those  of  the  mere  man  of  affairs. 

IV.  But  the  lineaments  of  still  another  face  appear 
in  our  composite  photograph  of  the  modern  minister. 
Another  element  of  baser  strain  has  entered  into  the 
make-up  of  the  ministry  of  today.  And  according  as 
that  element  prevails,  so  is  the  moral  weakness  and 
spiritual  degeneracy  of  that  ministry.  Perhaps  that 
element  finds  its  most  striking  historic  development  and 
expression  in  the  Greek  sophist  or  rhetorician,  from 
whom  we  all  unconsciously  inherit,  though  there  are 
traces  of  his  features  in  the  later  Hebrew  prophets. 
Sometimes  the  prophets  were  eloquent  in  the  delivery  of 
their  messages.  And  the  people  frequently  enjoyed  the 
delivery  more  than  they  heeded  the  message.  There 
was  a  double  danger  in  that.  There  was  a  temptation 
to  the  prophet  to  sink  into  a  mere  rhetorician  and  ora- 
tor, to  become  a  public  entertainer  rather  than  a  messen- 
ger and  ambassador  of  the  Lord.  And  there  was  a 
tem.ptation  to  the  people  to  consider  themselves  religious 
merely  because  they  "enjoyed  sermons"  instead  of  be- 
cause they  "obeyed  the  Word  of  the  Lord"  which  came 
to  them  thereby,  (which,  by  the  way,  is  a  condition  not 
altogether  unknown  today).  Ezekiel  gives  us  a  graphic 
picture  of  such  a  state  of  things  in  his  day  and  it  is 
quite  modern  in  its  atmosphere  and  feeling.  Listen  to 
his  words  and  you  can  almost  hear  the  chatter  of  a 
modern  fashionable  congregation  on  its  way  to  church  to 
hear  a  popular  preacher,  an  eloquent  divine.     God  says 


18  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

to  his  prophet,  "Also,  thou  son  of  man,  the  children  of 
thy  people  are  talking  about  thee  by  the  walls  and  in 
the  doors  of  the  houses  and  speak  one  to  another,  every 
one  to  his  brother,  saying,  'Come,  I  pray  you  and  hear 
what  is  the  word  that  cometh  forth  from  the  Lord !' " 
(Which  was  but  a  cant  way  of  saying,  "Come  and  let 
us  hear  the  eloquent  Rev.  Dr.  Ezekiel  preach  in  the 
synagogue  on  Chebar  Avenue.")  "And  they  sit  before 
thee  as  my  people  and  they  hear  thy  words — but  they 
do  them  not — for  their  mouth  showeth  much  love." 
There  were  flattering  compliments  given  to  the  preacher 
after  service.  "But  their  heart  goeth  after  their  covetous- 
ness.  And  lo,  thou  art  unto  them  as  a  very  lovely  song 
of  one  that  hath  a  pleasant  voice  and  can  play  well  on 
an  instrument,  for  they  hear  thy  words  but  do  them  not." 

And  so  even  in  ancient  days  the  prophets  of  the  Lord 
had  to  meet  that  temptation  of  degenerating  into  rhetori- 
cians, orators,  and  public  entertainers. 

But  that  temptation  reached  its  climax  when  the 
Christian  Church  emerged  into  the  Greek  world.  And 
here  I  must  acknowledge  my  deep  indebtedness  to  the 
English  scholar.  Hatch.  In  that  Greek  world  there  had 
been  a  race  of  philosophers,  who  like  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  were  concerned  chiefly  about  righteousness 
and  spake  directly  and  mightily  to  the  hearts  and  con- 
sciences of  men.  But  they  had  been  succeeded,  in  what 
may  be  called  the  "sub-philosophic"  days,  by  a  degen- 
erate tribe  of  sophists  and  rhetoricians  who  were  con- 
cerned chiefly  about  popularity  and  spake  only  to  the 
itching  ears  and  curious  fancies  of  the  people. 

The  sophist  was  a  professional.  He  belonged  to  a 
recognized  guild  or  class.  He  wore  clerical  clothes  on 
the  street  and  clerical  vestments  in  the  pulpit.  He  was 
an  adept  in  his  art.  He  was  trained  in  rhetoric  and 
oratory,  familiar  with  literature,  and  became  a  master 


The  Modern  Minister — (A  Composite)         19 

of  pulpit  craft.  He  went  about  his  trade  in  a  most  busi- 
nesslike manner.  When  he  had  fixed  upon  his  location 
he  got  into  the  best  society,  established  his  reputation 
as  a  conversationalist  and  a  "mixer,"  and  then  he  "hired 
a  hall,"  set  his  days  and  hours  and  sent  out  his  cards  of 
invitation  or  his  crier  through  the  streets  and  assembled 
his  audience.  And  he  reaped  the  full  reward  he  sought 
for  his  labors  when  he  won  their  applause  and  their 
drachmas.  Sometimes  a  popular  sophist  received  fees 
such  as  a  modern  prima  donna  gets  for  a  single  night's 
performance.  Listen  to  this  address  of  Epictetus  to  a 
sophist  of  his  day  and  you  can  easily  imagine  a  stern  old 
Hebrew  prophet  talking  to  a  modern  "eloquent  divine." 
"The  truth  is,  you  love  applause.  You  care  more  for 
that  than  for  doing  good.  And  so  you  invite  people  to 
come  and  hear  you.  But  does  a  philosopher  invite  people 
to  come  and  hear  him?  Is  it  not  that  as  the  sun,  or  as 
food,  is  its  own  sufficient  attraction,  so  is  the  philosopher 
his  own  sufficient  attraction  to  those  who  are  benefited 
by  him  ?  Does  a  physician  invite  people  to  come  and  let 
him  heal  them?  Imagine  what  a  genuine  philosopher's 
invitation  would  be.  T  invite  you  to  come  and  be  told 
that  you  are  in  a  bad  way,  that  you  care  for  everything 
but  what  you  should  care  for,  that  you  do  not  know 
what  things  are  good  and  what  things  are  evil,  that  you 
are  really  unhappy  and  miserable/  A  nice  invitation 
that!  And  yet  if  that  be  not  the  result  of  what  the 
philosopher  says,  he  and  his  words  alike  are  dead. 
Musonius  Rufus  used  to  say,  Tf  you  have  leisure  to 
compliment  me,  my  teaching  has  been  in  vain.'  Accord- 
ingly he  used  to  talk  in  such  a  way  that  each  individual 
one  of  us  who  sat  there  thought  that  some  one  had 
been  telHng  Rufus  about  him;  he  so  put  his  finger  on 
what  he  had  done,  he  so  set  the  individual  faults  of  each 
one  of  us  clearly  before  our  eyes.    The  business  of  ex- 


20  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

hortation  is  to  show  people  not  simply  what  they  like 
or  want  but  what  they  really  need.  But  to  show  this, 
is  it  necessary  to  place  a  thousand  chairs  and  invite 
people  to  come  and  listen,  and  dress  yourself  up  in  a  fine 
gown  and  describe  the  death  of  Achilles!  Tell  me,  who 
after  hearing  one  of  your  discourses  ever  became  anxious 
or  reflected  upon  himself?  Who  as  he  went  out  of 
your  lecture-room  said,  'The  philosopher  put  his  finger 
upon  my  faults.  I  must  not  behave  in  that  way  again.' 
You  can  not.  The  utmost  satisfaction  you  get  is  when 
one  man  says  to  another,  'That  was  a  beautiful  passage 
about  Xerxes.'  And  the  other  replies,  'No,  I  liked  best 
that  about  the  battle  of  Thermopylae.'  " 

This  is  a  sophist's  sermon.  Listen  to  just  one  other 
quotation.  It  is  the  confession  of  a  popular  preacher 
of  ancient  days,  one  who  won  for  himself  the  title  of 
Chrysostom,  "the  golden-mouthed,"  and  yet  one  who 
strove  to  be  a  true  prophet  of  God.  They  are  words 
most  modern  in  their  flavor. 

"There  be  many  preachers  who  make  long  sermons. 
If  they  be  well  applauded,  they  are  as  happy  as  if  they 
had  obtained  a  kingdom ;  if  they  bring  a  sermon  to  an  end 
in  silence,  their  despondency  is  worse,  I  may  say,  than 
hell.  It  is  this  that  ruins  churches,  that  you  seek  not 
to  hear  sermons  that  touch  the  heart,  but  sermons  that 
will  delight  your  ears  with  their  intonations  and  the 
structure  of  their  phrases  as  if  you  were  listening  to 
singers  or  lute-players.  And  we  preachers  humor  your 
fancies  instead  of  trying  to  cure  them.  We  act  like  a 
weak  father  who  gives  his  sick  child  a  cake  or  an  ice 
or  something  nice  to  eat  just  because  he  asks  for  it, 
and  takes  no  pains  to  give  him  what  is  good  for  him. 
And  when  the  doctors  blame  him,  says,  T  could  not 
bear  to  hear  my  child   cry.' 

"That  is   what  we  do  when   we   elaborate  beautiful 


The  Modern  Minister — (A  Composite)         21 

sentences,  fine  combinations  and  harmonies  to  please  and 
not  to  profit,  to  be  admired  and  not  to  instruct,  to  de- 
light and  not  to  touch  you,  to  go  away  with  your  applause 
in  our  ears  but  not  to  better  your  conduct.  Believe  me, 
I  am  not  speaking  at  random.  When  you  applaud,  I 
feel  at  the  moment  as  it  is  natural  for  me  to  feel.  I 
will  make  a  clean  breast  of  it.  I  am  delighted  and  over- 
joyed. And  then  when  I  go  home  and  reflect  that  the 
people  who  have  been  applauding  me  have  received  no 
benefit,  and  indeed  that  whatever  benefit  they  might 
have  received,  has  been  killed  by  the  applause  and  the 
praises,  I  am  sore  at  heart,  I  lament  and  fall  to  tears. 
I  feel  as  if  I  had  spoken  altogether  in  vain." 

How  profoundly  true  to  the  experience  of  the  modern 
preacher  of  any  parts  or  popularity  and  how  keenly 
searching  to  his  conscience  is  this  confession  of  John, 
"the  golden-mouthed,"  the  "eloquent  divine"  of  ancient 
Constantinople.  Does  not  every  such  preacher  know 
how  grateful,  exhilarating,  even  intoxicating,  like  a 
draught  of  champagne,  are  the  flattering  compliments 
that  come  after  service,  and  how  subtly  insinuating  is 
the  temptation  to  be  satisfied  with  them  for  the  moment? 
And  then  come  the  depression  and  disgust  when  one 
feels  that  the  sermon  which  was  honestly  intended  to 
quicken  the  callous  conscience,  bind  up  the  broken  heart 
and  inspire  the  heavy  spirit,  has  all  ended  in  a  momen- 
tary gaping  admiration  at  a  futile  and  passing  display 
of  rhetorical  and  oratorical  pyrotechnics !  Woe  unto 
the  preacher  who  gets  to  be  content  with  this  reward 
of  his  labors !  For  surely  this  is  the  anti-climax  in  the' 
development  of  the  Christian  minister,  the  lowest  bathos 
to  which  he  can  descend — when  the  solemn  prophet  of 
the  Most  High,  the  flaming  and  incarnate  conscience 
of  the  community,  the  interpreter  and  ambassador  of 
the  Christ  of  God,  has  finally  degenerated  into  a  popular 


22  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

entertainer,  who  turns  the  pulpit  into  a  religious  vaude- 
ville stage  and  becomes  an  ecclesiastical  song  and  dance 
artist ! 

Hebrew  prophet,  Hebrew  priest,  apostolic  administra- 
tor, and  alas,  too  often  Greek  sophist  and  rhetorician, — 
these  are  the  four  historic  figures  which  coalesce  in  that 
photograph,  the  modern  Christian  minister.  These  are 
our  spiritual  ancestors  from  whom  we  inherit,  consciously 
or  unconsciously. 

What  our  ministry  shall  become  in  spiritual  power 
and  efficiency  depends  wholly  upon  which  of  these  ele- 
ments in  it  we  emphasize  and  cultivate  and  which  we 
subordinate  and  suppress.  That  power  and  efficiency 
depend  upon  a  due  and  proportionate  combination.  I 
beseech  you  first  of  all,  let  us  watch  and  pray  against 
that  most  subtle,  most  persistent  and  insistent  tempta- 
tion of  the  preacher,  that  temptation  which  if  yielded 
to  most  surely  and  fatally  debases  him  and  his  ministry, 
the  temptation  to  play  the  part  of  a  public  entertainer. 
If  we  have  any  gifts  that  shine  and  attract,  let  us  remem- 
ber they  are  not  plaques  and  pictures  to  hang  on  our 
walls  and  then  call  in  the  world  to  admire.  They  are 
our  tools  of  service.  Let  us  thank  the  Lx)rd  for  them, 
keep  them  sharp  and  shining  as  befits  efficient  tools,  and 
use  them  to  the  utmost  of  our  ability  for  the  converting 
of  sinners  and  the  comifort  and  edification  of  the  saints 
and  the  upbuilding  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth 
and  then  forget  them  absolutely  in  their  use. 

If  the  Spirit  have  endowed  us  in  any  degree  with  the 
gift  of  ''helps  and  governments,"  the  faculty  of  adminis- 
tration and  organization,  let  us  thank  God  for  that, 
cultivate  our  gift  diligently  and  consecrate  it  to  spiritual 
service.  There  is  ample  opportunity  for  its  right  and 
noble  use  in  the  legitimate  work  of  the  Christian  Church 
and   the   Christian  ministry.     Only  let  us  beware  lest 


The  Modern  Minister — (A  Composite)        23 

our  ears  grow  satisfied  with  the  mere  clatter  of  the 
machinery  we  have  built  and  the  bustle  of  the  activities 
we  have  inspired  and  think  therefore  that  God's  work 
is  being  abundantly  done.  No  work  is  God's  work  that 
does  not  finally  issue  in  the  moral  uplift  and  spiritual 
edification  of  the  individual  or  the  community.  Let  us 
take  heed  lest  the  spirit  of  ourselves  and  our  ministry  be 
exhausted  in  the  mere  whirling  of  the  wheels  we  have 
started,  and  the  soul  thereof  caught  and  ground  up  in 
them. 

There  will  be  moments  of  high  exaltation  in  our  minis- 
try, "times  of  refreshing  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord," 
when  we  feel  that  we  have  been  touched  by  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord,  that  God  has  charged  us  with  a  message 
that  we  must  deliver,  for  His  "word  burns  like  a  fire  in 
our  hearts,  shut  up  in  our  bones  and  we  cannot  stay." 
Then  we  preach,  not  because  we  have  to  say  something, 
— Sunday  has  come  and  the  pulpit  waits  for  us  and  the 
people  expect  a  sermon, — but  because  we  have  some- 
thing to  say.  God  has  given  it  us,  and  we  must  utter  it 
to  His  people.  We  can  cry  out  with  Paul,  "Necessity  is 
laid  upon  me.  Woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel !" 
Then,  in  however  imperfect  literary  form  or  even  stam- 
mering utterance  we  may  preach,  we  speak  as  prophets; 
people  will  know  it  and  be  touched,  inspired,  uplifted 
thereby. 

But  no  man  can  be  a  prophet  regularly  twice  a  day 
for  fifty-two  Sundays  in  a  year,  or  even  forty!  On 
the  dead  levels  and  ordinary  occasions  of  our  ministry 
we  must  rely  on  our  priestly  office  and  ministrations, 
and  on  our  didactic  functions.  "For  the  priest's  lips 
should  keep  knowledge,"  the  knowledge  that  is  derived 
from  the  patient  and  diligent  study  of  the  Word  Written, 
the  tried  and  tested  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the 
Church,  the  spiritual  experience  of  the  saints,  the  wisdom 


24  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

of  the  wise  and  the  visions  of  the  seers;  knowledge  that 
comes  through  patient  scholarship,  knowledge  that  is 
wholesome  and  reasonable,  sweet  and  sane,  and  "is  profit- 
able for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  in- 
struction in  righteousness";  knowledge,  that  is,  which 
avails  for  the  rule  and  regulation  and  cleansing  of  life, 
if  it  does  not  always  uplift  and  inspire  Hke  the  prophet's 
burning  message.  Most  of  our  sermons  will  probably 
be  priestly  rather  than  prophetic. 

And  there  is  also  the  priest's  function  in  the  reverent 
leading  of  the  people's  worship  and  the  faithful  adminis- 
tration of  sacraments.  Let  us  despise  it  not  in  compari- 
son with  the  more  dramatic  and  personal  function  of  the 
preacher.  For  often  worship  and  sacrament  will  carry 
into  souls  messages  and  inspirations  which  we  could  not 
give  through  any  spoken  word  of  our  own,  however 
prophetic. 

But  above  all  let  us  cultivate  and  develop  the  prophetic 
element  in  our  ministry.  Let  the  spirit  of  the  prophet 
fuse  into  oneness  and  inspire  with  its  spiritual  vitality 
all  the  other  offices  and  functions  of  our  many-sided 
ministry.  For  it  is  the  supreme  and  essential,  the  basic 
and  noblest  element  in  it.  And  the  prophetic  gift  and 
spirit  can  be  cultivated.  The  prophet  became  the  friend 
of  God,  not  simply  by  natural  endowment  or  by  super- 
natural inspiration,  but  by  diligent  self -discipline.  He 
was  the  man  who  had  so  sensitized  his  conscience  and 
purified  his  heart  and  attuned  his  spirit  to  the  Spirit 
of  God  that  he  was  worthy  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Divine  intimacy  and  companionship,  and  so  became  a  fit 
messenger  and  interpreter,  an  open  and  transparent  med- 
ium between  God  and  men. 

There  is  a  beautiful  phrase  in  Isaiah's  prophecy  which 
describes  the  method  of  prophetic  inspiration.  "The 
Lord  God  uncovered  mine  ear  and  I  was  not  disobedi- 


The  Modern  Minister — (A  Composite)        25 

ent."  It  is  the  picture  of  a  friend  going  to  his  friend, 
pushing  back  the  long  hair  from  over  his  ear  and  whisper- 
ing therein  his  confidences. 

If  we  shall  thus  sensitize  our  consciences,  purify  our 
hearts  and  attune  our  minds  to  the  mind  of  Christ,  He 
will  admit  us  into  His  fellowship  and  friendship.  He 
will  make  us  His  intimates  and  confidants.  He  will 
whisper  into  our  ears,  through  our  own  spiritual  ex- 
perience, messages  for  His  people.  A  great  preacher, 
who  knew  what  true  preaching  is,  if  anyone  ever  did, 
defined  it  as  "truth  through  personality."  It  is  truth 
realized  and  vitalized  through  our  own  personal  experi- 
ence, and  then  delivered  to  our  fellowmen,  yet  without 
any  of  that  ostentatious  display  of  the  purely  personal 
which  is  always  a  betrayal  of  sacred  trust,  and  some- 
times an  indecent  exposure  of  the  spiritual  personality. 
Let  us  preach  the  truth  we  have  realized  and  felt  for 
ourselves  through  our  own  experiences,  preach  it  boldly 
and  wholly,  apply  it  fearlessly  to  the  conscience  and 
heart  not  only  of  the  individual  but  also  of  society;  yet 
keep  the  experiences  as  a  sacred  secret  between  ourselves 
and  God.  This  is  the  message  of  the  prophet  of  Jehovah 
and  the  servant  of  Christ  as  described  in  the  words  of 
the  Master :  "What  I  tell  you  in  darkness  that  speak  ye 
in  light,  and  what  ye  hear  in  the  ear,  in  the  closet,  that 
preach  ye  upon  the  housetops," 


II 

The  Prophetic  Succession 

THE  "Apostolic  succession"  is  a  familiar  phrase 
in  the  literature  of  theology,  particularly  in  the 
language  of  ecclesiastical  polemics.  Over-stressed, 
magically  interpreted,  it  becomes  an  absurdity  of  super- 
stition, the  alleged  conveyor  of  manual  or  digital  grace. 
Underestimated,  it  becomes  the  matter  of  superficial  and 
often  senseless  jibes  and  jests.  Duly  estimated  and 
rationally  interpreted,  as  a  principle  applied  habitually 
everywhere  else  in  human  affairs,  it  has  its  large  values, 
I  believe,  as  an  assurance  of  the  regularity  of  the  author- 
itative commission  of  the  ministry  and  the  continuity 
of  the  historic  church,  and,  as  such,  it  seems  to  many, 
perhaps  the  majority  of  Christians,  the  basis  of  organic 
unity  and  order  in  a  divided  and  chaotic  Christendom. 

But  there  is  another  succession,  vastly  more  important. 
It  is  the  only  assurance  of  the  reality  of  the  mission  of 
God  in  our  ministry.  It  is  the  one  secret  and  source  of 
all  spiritual  vitality,  power  and  efficacy  in  that  ministry. 
And  that  is  the  "prophetic  succession." 

I  have  said  that  the  prophetic  element  is  at  once  the 
basic  and  noblest  element  in  our  composite  ministry. 
It  was  the  Hebrew  prophet  who  was  developed  into  a 
Christian  preacher.  Upon  him,  trained  and  prepared  for 
the  task,  was  laid  this  new  burden  of  the  Lord,  the 
proclamation  to  a  world  of  sin,  -doubt  and  sorrow,  of 
"the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,"  "the  gospel  which 
is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,"  with  its  "certain 

26 


The  Prophetic  Succession  27 

faith,  its  reasonable,  religious  and  holy  hope,"  and  its 
abounding  consolations. 

Let  us  glance  back  today  to  that  picture  gallery  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  trace  in  the  portrait  of  our 
common  ancestor,  the  Hebrew  prophet,  the  Hneaments, 
particularly  the  essential  and  nobler  lineaments,  of  our 
family  likeness.  Let  us  estimate  the  spiritual  values  of 
our  heredity  and  the  inheritance  it  carries  down  to  us. 

Etymology  may  help  us  a  little — a  glance  at  early 
Hebrew  history  may  help  us  more. 

The  word  ''prophet"  comes,  as  you  know,  from  the 
Greek  "prophetes,"  which  may  mean,  as  I  have  said, 
either  a  "foreteller"  or  a  "forth-teller,"  or  better,  "one 
who  speaks  on  behalf  of  another."  Popular  usage  has 
almost  exclusively  emphasized  the  first  meaning.  The 
study  of  Greek  origins  and  the  actual  character  of 
Hebrew  prophecy  stress  the  second  meaning.  One  pic- 
ture from  ancient  Greece  may  throw  light  upon  the  origi- 
nal significance  of  the  word  and  upon  the  function  of 
the  prophet  in  Greek  religion.  The  scene  is  the  cave 
of  Apollo  at  Delphi.  The  pythoness  or  priestess  of  the 
god  sits  upon  her  tripod  over  a  hole  in  the  floor  whence 
issue  intoxicating  gasses  as  the  modern  scientist  would 
say,  the  afflatus  and  inspiration  of  the  deity  as  the 
devout  worshipper  believed.  Under  that  influence  the 
priestess  breaks  forth  into  ravings,  incoherent  babbling 
utterances.  By  her  side  stands  the  "prophetes"  or 
prophet  who  translates  this  gibberish  into  the  counsel 
or  knowledge  which  the  worshipper  seeks.  This  is  the 
oracle  of  Apollo. 

So  to  the  Greek  the  prophet  was  the  "fortli-teller," 
the  messenger  of  the  gods — the  interpreter  of  the  mind 
and  will  of  deity. 

The  Hebrew  name  for  the  prophet,  nabi,  is  of  doubt- 
ful origin.     The  root   from  whence  it  is  derived  may 


28  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

signify  simply  "to  mutter  or  utter  in  a  low  tone,"  and 
thus  to  "give  information"  or,  as  seems  to  some  scholars 
more  likely,  "to  be  surcharged,  and  so  to  bubble  over, 
to  pour  forth." 

One  is  reminded  of  Jeremiah's  experience,  "His  Word 
v^as  in  mine  heart  as  a  burning  fire,  shut  in  my  bones, 
and  I  was  weary  with  forbearing  and  could  not  stay." 

The  "nabi"  seems  to  combine  the  two  functions  of  the 
pythoness  and  the  prophetes.  He  was  both  the  immediate 
recipient  of  the  Divine  afflatus  or  inspiration  and  also  the 
translator  thereof,  the  interpreter  of  the  mind  and  will 
of  the  deity. 

Let  us  turn  now  from  dry  etymology  to  take  a  glance 
at  the  more  interesting  story  of  the  origins  of  Hebrew 
prophecy. 

The  fascinating  stories  of  the  Books  of  Samuel  and 
the  Kings  are  rich  in  material  for  such  a  study.  That 
material  is  all  the  more  valuable  because  it  is  so  inci- 
dental— not  a  deliberate  and  detailed  setting  forth  of 
the  origin  and  growth  of  Hebrew  prophecy,  but  simply 
a  mass  of  allusions  and  asides,  "obiter  dicta."  I  do  not 
begin  with  the  elaborate  cults  and  systems  of  Leviticus 
and  Deuteronomy  or  even  the  fully  wrought  out  and 
finished  story  of  the  Exodus  with  its  commanding 
figure,  Moses,  the  man  of  God.  I  am  forced  to  believe 
with  our  best  criticism  that  these  books  are  shaped  out 
of  and  informed  by  a  later  development  and  experience, 
or  at  least  illumined  by  the  light  thereof.  For  the  genu- 
ine genesis  of  Hebrew  prophecy  we  must  look  to  these 
stories  of  Samuel  and  the  Kings.  We  must  not  be  of- 
fended if  we  find  the  fair  lily  of  Hebrew  prophecy  which 
came  to  its  bloom  in  the  great  Unknown,  rooting  in  the 
muck  and  mire  of  the  crude  ignorance,  superstition  and 
magic  of  the  dawn  ages  of  history. 

Among  the   early  Hebrews,   as   among  all   primitive 


The  Prophetic  Succession  29 

peoples,  and  some  moderns,  the  first  and  natural  ap- 
proach of  deity  to  man  was  sought  not  through  the  rea- 
son or  conscience  but  through  the  emotional  nature,  and 
particularly  through  what  we  have  learned  to  call  in  our 
modern  psychology,  the  subconscious  mind  or  subliminal 
self.  We  are  never  far  from  that  bog  of  ancient  supersi- 
tion  and  we  are  constantly  slipping  into  it.  Many  a  modern 
sect  like  the  "Holy  Rollers"  and  many  a  popular  revival 
find  more  evidence  of  the  Spirit's  power,  presence  and 
inspiration  in  the  rhapsodical  and  even  orgiastic  than  in 
the  moral  and  spiritual,  surer  assurance  of  conversion 
in  an  emotional  debauch  than  in  the  amendment  of  life, 
the  transformation  of  character  or  the  change  of  heart. 
And  even  our  most  advanced  modern  cults,  sought  eager- 
ly by  those  for  whom  the  Christianity  of  Christ  has 
grown  tame  and  uninteresting,  if  not  too  exacting  in  its 
moral  discipline,  substitute  the  psychic  for  the  truly 
spiritual  as  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine.  This,  it 
seems  to  me,  is  the  common  characteristic  and  funda- 
mental error  of  such  cults  as  spiritualism.  Christian 
Science  and  theosophy.  The  inevitable  result  is  a  gradual 
misplacing  of  the  accents  of  true  religion,  taking  them 
off  the  moral,  ethical  and  spiritual  and  setting  them 
on  the  mysterious,  magical  and  psychic,  and  consequently 
there  almost  always  ensues  a  loosening  of  the  fibres  of 
conduct  and  character  in  their  devotees. 

But  let  us  go  back  to  the  early  Hebrews — it  is  not 
a  far  cry. 

It  is  an  era  of  transition,  as  we  are  fond  of  saying, 
such  as  the  world  is  passing  through  now.  An  old 
order  has  disappeared.  The  new  order  has  not  yet 
emerged.  A  horde  of  wandering  tribes  have  conquered 
a  new  land  and  established  themselves  in  their  new  home. 
But  all  is  confusion,  chaos,  anarchy.  There  is  no  con- 
scious national  life  or  unity,   for  there  is  no  clear  or 


30  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

commanding  leadership,  political  or  religious,  about  which 
that  national  consciousness  may  gather  and  integrate. 
"Every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes, 
for  there  was  no  king  in  Israel."  A  strange  ferment 
spreads  through  the  mass.  It  is  a  time  of  religious  ex- 
citement or  hysteria,  as  such  periods  are  apt  to  be.  Cer- 
tain more  sensitive  or  excitable  spirits  gather  into 
groups  and  establish  themselves  in  lonely  places  in 
coenobitic  settlements  like  monasteries.  Samuel  himself 
is  the  "abbot"  of  one  of  these  monsteries.  Here  dwell 
the  prophets  and  sons  of  the  prophets.  They  roam 
through  the  land,  raving,  dancing  and  howling,  very 
like  the  dervishes  of  the  East  today.  Their  frenzy  or 
mania  is  contagious,  like  that  of  a  negro  camp  meeting 
or  Holy  Roller  gathering.  When  the  cool,  "common- 
sense,"  practical  Saul,  herdsman,  warrior  and  leader  of 
men,  meets  a  band  of  these  prophets,  even  he  catches 
the  fever  of  their  frenzy,  tears  off  his  clothes  and  wal- 
lows on  the  ground.  As  among  all  primitive  peoples, 
insanity  is  reverenced  as  an  evidence  of  inspiration,  and 
"madman"  is  an  accepted  epithet  for  the  prophet.  When 
the  messenger  of  the  prophets  visited  Jehu,  his  compan- 
ions inquire  quite  naturally  "Wherefore  came  this  mad 
fellow  unto  thee"?  Even  Samuel,  the  one  clear  figure 
that  emerges  from  the  murk  and  the  mass  with  a  high 
vision  and  purpose,  shares  their  methods  and  modes  of 
expression.  For  is  it  not  written  that  when  the  Philis- 
tines came  up  against  Israel,  the  people  said  unto  Samuel 
"Cease  not  to  howl  unto  the  Lord  for  us,"  so  the  Hebrew 
reads,  though  the  English  version  has  euphemized  it 
into  "cease  not  to  cry  unto  the  Lord  for  us."  Elisha  in- 
vokes the  Divine  afiflatus  by  musical  excitement  as  the 
Indian  medicine  men  beat  their  tom-toms  or  the  Egyptian 
dervishes  play  their  flutes  for  the  same  purpose.  The 
prophet  is  dull,  he  has  no  oracle  to  deliver.     "Bring  me 


The  Prophetic  Succession  31 

a  minstrel,"  he  commands,  "and  it  came  to  pass  when 
the  minstrel  played,  the  hand  of  the  Lord  came  upon 
Elisha"  and  he  spake  the  word  given  him. 

Everywhere  we  find  evidence  that  the  early  prophetic 
inspiration  was  rhapsodical  and  even  orgiastic.  It  came 
through  the  emotional  and  the  psychic  nature,  the  sub- 
conscious mind  or  subliminal  self,  and  not  through  the 
conscious  reason  or  conscience.  That  form  of  inspira- 
tion survived  even  to  Christian  and  Apostolic  days.  It 
turned  the  meetings  of  the  Corinthian  church  into 
pandemoniums  of  senseless  sound  like  that  of  musical 
instruments  struck  at  random  with  no  distinction  of 
notes,  so  that  none  could  "tell  what  was  piped  or  harped." 
It  gives  the  explanation  of  the  gift  of  tongues  as  referred 
to  in  1  Cor.  And  as  we  all  well  know,  the  rhap- 
sodical and  orgiastic  notions  of  inspiration  still  sur- 
vive in  many  modern  sects  and  religious  movements  and 
the  purely  psychic  in  the  most  "advanced"  modern  cults. 
They  are  still  at  the  stage  of  early  Hebrew  prophecy. 

And  as  with  the  nature  of  the  prophet's  inspiration,  so 
it  was  with  the  prophet's  function  and  service.  Both 
stood  on  the  same  low  plane. 

"He  that  is  now  called  a  prophet  (nabi)  was  before 
time  called  a  seer  (roeh)"  declares  a  significant  utterance 
in  1  Sam.,  "a  clairvoyant"  we  should  put  it  today.  He 
found  lost  property  and  took  fees  for  his  services,  and 
sometimes  the  fees  were  small.  Saul  and  his  servant 
have  only  the  fourth  part  of  a  shekel  of  silver  to  offer 
the  seer  that  he  may  be  induced  to  show  them  their  way 
as  they  search  for  the  strayed  asses.  He  is  a  fortune- 
teller and  diviner.  He  finds  springs  of  water,  perhaps 
with  his  witchhazel  rod.  Like  the  Roman  augurs  and 
haruspices,  he  accompanies  in  troops  kings  as  they  go 
forth  to  battle  and  foretells  the  issues  of  the  conflict  by 
"the  going  of  the  winds  in  the  tops  of  the  mulberry 


32  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

trees/'the  entrails  of  victims  and  the  like.  His  god 
is  a  wily,  tricksy,  humorous  god,  not  above  deceiving  his 
prophets  and  their  royal  masters  by  sending  forth  "lying 
spirits."  The  seer's  aid  is  sought  in  sickness  and  mis- 
fortune. And,  as  is  witnessed  by  the  strict  prohibitions 
and  severe  penalties  enacted  in  the  later  Levitical  legis- 
lation, he  has  commerce  with  familiar  spirits.  He  is  a 
necromancer  and  a  medium.  He  holds  seances  and  gets 
messages  from,  discarnate  spirits  by  means  that  corres- 
pond to  modern  crystal  gazing,  table  tipping,  rappings 
and  automatic  writing.  For  much  that  is  most  modern 
is  but  a  reversion  to  primitive  type. 

Such  was  our  common  ancestor,  the  Hebrew  prophet, 
in  his  early  beginnings.  His  inspiration  meant  an  abdica- 
tion of  reason,  will  and  consciousness,  and  a  passive  sub- 
mission to  hysterical  emotional  seizures  and  psychic 
possessions  or  obsessions.  He  was  like  an  aeoHan  harp 
swept  by  stray  breezes.  His  function  and  ministry  were 
concerned,  not  with  the  moral,  ethical  and  spiritual,  the 
guidance  of  life  and  conduct,  the  upbuilding  of  charac- 
ter and  the  cause  of  righteousness,  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
but  chiefly  with  the  mysterious  and  magical.  Such  the 
functionary  of  religion  whether  prophet,  priest  or  oracle, 
continued  to  be  in  most  other  religions — such  as  the 
Greek,  Roman  and  Eastern  cults.  The  moral  and  ethical 
were  the  concern  of  a  race  of  philosophers  who  had 
little  connection  with  religion,  indeed  were  often  skep- 
tics, apostles  of  reason  and  interpreters  of  conscience, 
rarely  and  slightly  conscious  of  any  Divine  mission  or 
inspiration,  as  for  example  was  Socrates  with  his  mysteri- 
ous "daimon." 

But  Israel  developed  no  distinct  race  of  philosophers, 
moral  or  social  reformers  or  ethical  culturists.  Even 
her  wisdom  literature  is  not  a  bare  moral  philosophy  or 
system  of  ethics.     It  is  all   fused  and  transfused,  not 


The  Prophetic  Succession  33 

merely  with  a  passion  for  righteousness,  but  with  a  sense 
of  God.  Her  wise  men  were  consciously  *'men  of  God," 
interpreters  of  His  mind  and  will.  It  was  preeminently 
so  with  her  prophets.  Never  were  there  such  moral 
philosophers  and  ethical  teachers  as  the  prophets  of 
Israel,  save  the  chief  of  them  all,  Jesus  Christ.  Their 
standards  and  ideals  will  never  be  surpassed.  Their 
penetration  and  discernment  can  never  be  exceeded. 
Never  were  there  such  social  reformers.  But  they  were 
primarily,  preeminently  and  always  men  of  God,  suffused 
and  possessed  with  God-consciousness,  messengers  of  the 
Most  High,  interpreters  of  the  Divine  mind  and  will, 
with  a  burden  of  the  Lord  laid  upon  them  and  "a,  word 
of  the  Lord  which  burned  like  fire  in  their  hearts"  which 
they  must  deliver.  It  is  that  which  gives  their  message 
a  vitality,  a  quickening,  lifting,  inspiring  power  which 
no  mere  moral  philosophy  or  system  of  ethics  can  possess. 
It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  feeble  pipings  of  the  snake 
charmer's  flute  in  the  hands  of  the  dancing,  howling, 
dervish  of  Samuel's  day  to  the  grand  diapasons,  the 
organ  like  tones  of  the  Great  Unknown,  the  Second 
Isaiah,  as  he  sings  his  far  visions  of  a  world-wide  reign 
of  righteousness  and  peace  in  the  universal  Kingdom  of 
God.  The  sense  of  Divine  inspiration,  of  God-conscious- 
ness, of  God-possession,  has  not  diminished.  It  has  in- 
creased, deepened,  intensified.  An  Isaiah,  Jeremiah  or 
Hosea  is  far  surer  of  the  will  and  word  of  God  than 
the  wizard  and  sooth-sayer  of  the  primitive  days.  The 
difference  is  this — the  early  prophet  is,  as  I  have  said, 
an  aeolian  harp,  passive,  swept  by  chance  breezes,  sup- 
posedly divine — the  later  prophet  is  the  master  musician 
penetrating  with  awe  and  joy  the  mind  of  the  Great 
Composer,  entering  into  the  rational,  sympathetic  and 
spiritual  fellowship  of  His  purposes  and  meanings,  and 
then   interpreting   all    with   His   best   and   most   highly 


34  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

trained  abilities  through  the  finest  instrument  he  can 
develop  in  his  own  reason  and  conscience. 

The  process  is  traceable.  Out  of  the  murky  mass  of 
the  early  rhapsodists  emerges  the  figure  of  Samuel,  the 
political  reformer,  the  man  with  a  clear  vision  and  de- 
finite purpose.  He  will  set  up  a  theocracy,  a  Kingdom 
of  God  in  Israel,  though  like  many  religious  reformers 
and  enthusiasts,  he  identifies  too  closely  the  reign  of 
God  with  the  personal  rule  of  His  servant,  the  reformer, 
preacher  or  priest.  Then  follows  an  Elijah,  the  religious 
reformer,  who  lays  the  foundation  of  a  supreme  un- 
swerving and  undivided  loyalty  to  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
Israel,  as  the  only  enduring  basis  of  the  Kingdom.  Both 
were  prophets  of  the  deed  rather  than  of  the  word.  They 
relied  on  external  rather  than  on  internal  means.  Samuel 
seeks  the  Kingdom  in  political  organization;  Elijah 
would  convert  to  religious  conformity  by  drought,  storm 
and  fire  from  heaven. 

Then  comes  a  turning  point  in  the  story  of  Hebrew 
prophecy.  The  prophets  of  the  deed  are  succeeded  by 
the  prophets  of  the  word.  That  turning  point  is  wonder- 
fully suggested  in  that  sublime  story  of  EHjah's  experi- 
ence at  Horeb.  The  broken,  despairing  man  of  God  stands 
at  the  cave's  mouth  on  the  lonely  mountain.  The  storm, 
the  fire,  the  earthquake  pass  by,  but  God  is  none  of  them. 
Then  comes  the  still  small  voice  and  Elijah  covers  his  face 
for  he  knows  that  Jehovah  is  come.  That  is  the  final 
and  supreme  revelation  and  manifestation  of  God,  not 
in  such  outward  miracles  and  forces  as  Elijah  had  de- 
pended on  hitherto,  but  in  the  still  small  voice  that 
speaks  to  conscience,  heart  and  soul.  "Not  by  might 
and  not  by  power,  but  by  my  spirit,  saith  the  Lord."  The 
prophet  is  henceforth  no  longer  an  external  reformer 
but  a  spiritual  regenerator.  His  is  the  ministry  of  the 
word.     He  stands  ever   in  the  presence  of   kings  as  a 


The  Prophetic  Succession  35 

flaming  incarnate  conscience,  like  Nathan  before  the 
sinning  David,  or  Elijah  confronting  the  cowardly,  despic- 
able Ahab  in  Naboth's  vineyard. 

Then  follows  that  "goodly  fellowship  of  the  prophets" 
of  the  word,  appealing  to  and  pleading  with,  wooing  and 
sometimes  storming  and  thundering  at  the  soul  of  a  whole 
people,  that  Israel  may  "walk  in  the  light  of  the  Lord," 
enter  into  rational  and  loving  fellowship  with  their  God 
and  so  set  up  His  Kingdom  throughout  the  world. 

That  is  the  development,  roughly  sketched,  of  Hebrew 
Prophecy. 

How  was  it  wrought?  I  should  say  in  brief  by  the 
substitution  of  the  rational  and  spiritual  for  the  psychic 
and  emotional  in  the  conception  of  the  prophet's  in- 
spiration, and  the  moral  and  ethical  for  the  magical  in 
his  mission  and  function.  It  was  the  exaltation  of  the 
noblest  qualities  of  personality,  the  things  that  make 
real  personality — the  supremacy  of  the  reason  and  the 
sovereignty  of  the  will, — and  then  the  fusing  of  these 
qualities  by  a  supreme  passion  for  righteousness  as  the 
will  of  an  all  Holy  God,  so  that  the  prophets  become 
the  fittest  and  finest  instruments  and  media  for  His 
messages  and  revelations  to  men. 

Perhaps  a  scene  in  the  Christian  Church  at  Corinth  may 
furnish  us  a  summary  or  cross  section  of  the  develop- 
ment of  Hebrew  prophecy.  The  church  is  pervaded  by 
a  group  of  prophets  very  like  that  company  of  howling, 
dancing  dervishes  who  dwelt  with  Samuel  at  Naioth. 
They  indulge  in  orgies  of  emotional  hysteria  or  psychic 
inspiration.  They  pour  forth  the  Divine  afflatus  in  in- 
coherent ravings.  The  apostle,  as  I  have  said,  compares 
their  utterances  to  the  sounds  of  musical  instruments, 
struck  at  random  "without  distinction  of  notes,  so  that 
none  can  tell  what  is  harped  or  piped."  Paul  comes  into 
that  pandemonium   of  chaos  and  confusion  to  restore 


36  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

order.    He  does  it  by  the  establishment  of  two  principles. 

First,  he  asserts  the  supremacy  of  the  reason,  the 
understanding.  "I  thank  my  God  I  speak  with  tongues 
more  than  ye  all.  Yet  in  the  church  I  had  rather  speak 
five  words  with  my  understanding  that  I  might  teach 
others  also  than  ten  thousand  words  in  an  unknown 
tongue."  And  then  second  he  utters  that  sublime  bit  of 
inspired  common  sense.  'The  spirits  of  the  prophets  are 
subject  unto  the  prophets."  It  is  the  declaration  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  will,  the  personality,  the  man.  The 
prophet  can  be  really  God-mastered  only  in  proportion  as 
he  is  self-mastered.  He  must  stand  at  attention  with 
all  his  noblest  and  best  developed  powers  and  faculties 
held  consciously,  deliberately  and  wilfully  in  control, 
ready  to  be  used  to  the  uttermost  by  the  spirit  of  God. 
There  in  brief  is  the  story  of  Hebrew  prophecy. 

The  supremacy  of  the  reason  is  emphasized  and  in- 
sisted upon  everywhere  in  later  Hebrew  prophecy. 

Isaiah  stands  in  the  presence  of  the  shrewd,  subtle,  cun- 
ning politicians  of  Jud-ah.  They  think  of  their  God  as 
the  mysterious  source  of  certain  psychic  influences — un- 
reasoned and  unreasoning  instincts  and  impulses  that 
possibly  make  for  an  iridescent,  impracticable  dream 
of  righteousness,  justice  and  holiness, — the  ideal.  But 
they  had  never  associated  intelligence  with  God  or  the 
men  of  God.  Those  old  Hebrew  politicians  thought  as 
"the  practical  business  man"  of  today  thinks — that  in- 
telligence, especially  "common-sense,"  is  the  exclusive 
monopoly  of  the  men  of  the  world ;  the  preachers,  the 
religious  generally  have  no  share  in  it.  There  is  a  funda- 
mental antagonism  between  intelligence  and  religion. 

Isaiah  turns  upon  these  men  with  a  short  sharp  utter- 
ance like  the  crack  of  a  whip.  "He  also  is  wise" — it 
might  almost  be  rendered,  "He  is  smart  too" — and  then 
proves   it  by   making   them   "smart"   under   the   keen, 


The  Prophetic  Succession  37 

searching,  stinging  irony  of  his  own  God-inspired  in- 
teUigence.  The  intelHgence  of  God,  the  understanding 
of  God,  the  reason  of  God — it  is  a  Divine  attribute 
fairly  set  apart,  personaHzed  and  deified  in  later  Hebrew 
literature,  and  almost  becomes  a  distinct  Divine  Person- 
ality. The  "dabar,"  the  "logos,"  the  "Word"  or  "Wis- 
dom," of  God  pleads  and  wrestles  with  men,  and  His 
interpreters,  His  spokesmen  and  prophets  are  called  the 
"Wise  Men."  There  is  no  more  interesting  study  than 
the  intellectual  analysis  of  some  of  the  sermons  of  the 
greater  prophets,  their  powerful  rationality,  their  com- 
prehensive grasp  of  understanding,  their  range  of  knowl- 
edge, their  penetrating  intelligence,  their  searching  in- 
sight. And  before  the  intelligence  of  Jesus,  the  chief 
of  the  prophets,  the  profoundest  mind  stands  dumb  and 
awe-struck.  We  are  so  absorbed  ordinarily  in  the  moral 
and  spiritual  values  of  His  teaching  that  we  forget  or 
overlook  its  intellectual  quality.  But  when  we  consider, 
for  example,  the  sheer  intelligence  of  His  parables,  we 
can  say  with  new  meaning,  "Never  man  spake  like  this 
man." 

And  then  that  citadel  of  personality,  the  sovereignty 
of  the  individual  will,  is  never  taken  by  storm  or  even 
invaded  by  the  will  of  God  in  the  inspiration  of  the 
prophets.  Rather  is  that  Will  of  God  consciously  and 
freely  chosen  as  commander  to  enlarge  and  fortify  that 
citadel.  The  spirit  of  the  prophet  is  not  the  spirit  of 
subjection  but  of  conscious  and  free  loyalty, — not  of 
submission  but  of  intelligent  and  joyous  fellowship.  His 
free  will  is  not  submerged  in  but  strengthened  and  de- 
veloped by,  and  then  voluntarily  and  gladly  identified 
with,  the  will  of  God.  They  are  strong,  masterful  men, 
this  "blessed  fellowship  of  the  prophets," — God-mas- 
tered, as  I  have  said,  because  first  self-mastered.  And 
we  turn  again  and  lastly  to  Jesus.     Never  was  a  per- 


38  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

sonality  so  completely  and  utterly  God-conscious  and 
God-possessed,  and  yet  never  was  a  personality  so  com- 
pletely and  utterly  its  own  and  itself.  Jesus  never 
"slops  over"  if  I  may  reverently  use  a  bit  of  expressive 
slang  as  Dr.  Coffin  did.  He  never  for  an  instant,  loses 
control  of  His  calm  judgment,  intelligence  or  will.  He  is 
always  Himself  at  the  highest.  Absolutely  aware  and 
sure  of  the  Divine  inspiration  and  will.  He  "speaks  with 
authority" — He  uses  only  the  indicative  and  imperative 
moods — he  declares  and  commands — He  does  not  de- 
duce, infer,  argue.  Yet  under  the  fullest  surge  and  tide 
of  the  Divine  afflatus,  the  instrument  never  trembles. 
His  utterance  is  His  own  as  much  as  God's.  In  the 
completeness  and  perfection  of  a  community  of  wills, 
He  can  say,  "I  and  the  Father  are  one." 

We  have  gone  far  afield  apparently.  You  may  be  say- 
ing "What  has  all  this  talk  about  the  genesis  and  develop- 
ment of  Hebrew  prophecy  to  do  with  the  Christian 
preacher  of  today?"  It  has  everything  to  do  with  him. 
The  application  ought  to  have  been  visible  and  palpable 
throughout  our  study.  If  it  has  not  been  so  I  fear  it 
will  be  as  useless  as  usual  to  "point  the  moral  and  adorn 
the  tale"  with  the  customary  "Haec  fabula  docet."  In 
my  closing  words  I  can  but  drive  home  that  application 
already,  I  hope,  apparent  to  your  minds. 

We  are  in  the  prophetic  succession,  you  and  I.  If 
our  call  to  the  ministry  has  been  real,  we  too  have 
had  our  vision  like  Isaiah's.  We  have  stood  in  the 
Presence  and  seen  God,  "high  and  lifted  up,  and  His 
glory  filled  the  sanctuary,"  and  yet  in  spite  of  His  lofti- 
ness and  glory,  ay,  in  ■  spite  of  His  omnipotence  and 
omniscience,  He  is  helpless  and  dumb  without  our  fel- 
lowship and  co-operation.  He  can  express  Himself  fully 
only  in  human  lives  and  through  human  lips.  The  word 
must  still  become  incarnate  if  it  is  to  dwell  among  us. 


The  Prophetic  Succession  39 

We  have  heard  His  voice  within,  saying  "Whom  shall 
I  send  and  who  will  go  for  us?"  And  we  have  risen 
up  in  trembling  humility  and  yet  resolute  consecration  to 
say,  "Here  am  I — send  me."  We  have  sought  the  burning, 
searching  sacrament  of  absolution,  the  live  coal  from  off 
the  altar  to  be  laid  upon  our  lips,  that  they  may  be  made 
clean  and  fit  to  uttter  His  message.  We  are  men  of 
God,  messengers  of  the  Most  High — interpreters  of  the 
will  and  mind  of  God — "forth-tellers"  for  a  God  who 
would  be  speechless  except  as  He  can  speak  through  us. 
Ay,  we  are  more.  We  are  ambassadors  of  Christ,  charged 
with  the  everlasting  Gospel,  sent  to  "preach  not  our- 
selves but  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord."  The  first  essential 
of  our  ministry  is  that  we  shall  be  God-conscious,  God- 
possessed  men.  Let  us  beware  of  certain  common  and 
fatal  misconceptions  of  our  ministry.  We  are  not  mere 
"traditors,"  banders  on  of  the  received  tradition,  whe- 
ther it  be  the  "faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints"  or 
whether  it  be  a  finished,  orthodox  and  complete  "plan 
of  salvation."  Phonographs  or  parrots  would  be  suffi- 
cient for  that  office.  We  are  not  even  manipulators 
of  the  means  of  grace.  Cash  registers  could  be  that.  We 
are  not  political  or  social  reformers.  There  are  plenty 
of  candidates  for  that  task,  wise  and  otherwise.  Nor  are 
we  mere  lecturers  on  morals  and  teachers  of  ethical  cul- 
ture, interpreters  of  reason  and  conscience  and  ex- 
pounders of  the  "best  that  has  been  thought  and  said." 
All  such  so-called  "preaching"  is  like  the  sunlight  with- 
out its  actinic  or  chemical  rays,  illuminating  but  not  vital- 
lizing.  We  need  the  illumination,  God  knows,  but  we 
need  above  all  that  mystical,  Divine  element  which  fructi- 
fies in  the  regeneration  of  the  heart,  in  transformation  of 
character  and  the  inspiration  of  life.  And  that  element 
can  be  found  only  in  the  gift  or  charisma  of  inspira- 
tion, as  real  and  ready  and  abundant  today  for  all  who 


40  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

fit  themselves  to  receive  it  as  it  ever  was  of  old.  We 
must  have  consciously  a  message  of  the  Lord,  a  burden 
of  the  Lord  laid  upon  us.  It  must  burn  in  our  hearts  as 
it  did  in  Jeremiah's  until  we  are  "weary  of  forbearing 
and  can  not  stay."  We  must  cry  out  with  St.  Paul  "Woe 
is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel." 

Without  that  gift  the  noblest  and  most  learned  ministry 
is  spiritually  dead. 

But  how  shall  we  attain  unto  that  God-consciousness 
and  God-possession?  How  shall  we  receive  the  charisma 
of  inspiration  ?  There  are  many  short  and  easy  methods 
offered,  many  ready-made  patents  and  specifics. 

As  I  have  suggested,  the  ancient  bogs  of  supersti- 
tion are  never  far  off.  There  is  everywhere  today  a 
tempting  reversion  to  the  ancient  type,  which  involves  a 
slighting  of  our  noblest  faculties,  sometimes  an  abdica- 
tion of  will  and  reason  and  a  submission  to  the  emo- 
tional and  psychic,  instead  of  the  discipline  and  cultiva- 
tion of  the  truly  spiritual.  It  is  to  be  seen  in  our  modern 
cults.  "Develop  your  pineal  gland,"  says  the  theosophist, 
"submit  yourself  passively  to  the  leading  of  the  experts ; 
submerge  your  consciousness  and  will  and  you  shall 
get  into  fellowship  with  the  Mahatmas,  the  great  white 
brotherhood,  which  is  all  of  God  we  can  know."  "Put 
yourself  through  a  course  of  self-hypnosis  and  auto-sug- 
gestion by  repeating  Mrs.  Eddy's  formulae  and  jargon" 
says  the  Christian  Scientist,  "and  you  shall  be  in  com- 
munion with  the  Divine  mind."  "Give  it  all  up  and 
listen  submissively  to  what  the  other  world  has  to  say 
through  tipping  and  rapping  tables,  ouija-boards  and 
automatic  writing"  says  the  spiritualist. 
\  And  much  of  our  popular  religion  is  not  far  off  from 
I  such  methods.  Education  has  been  solemnly  declared  by 
a  certain  sect  as  a  hindrance  to  the  operations  of  the 
\  Spirit.     The  less  you  know  and  the  less  mind  you  have 


The  Prophetic  Succession  41 

to  know  with,  the  better  medium  and  spokesman  you 
are  for  God.  A  reformed  criminal  picked  up  from  the 
dives,  an  ignoramus  from  the  streets,  even  a  juvenile 
prodigy,  is  apt  to  be  a  better  expounder  of  the  wisdom 
of  God  and  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  than  the 
much  contemned  graduate  of  the  universities  and  semin- 
aries. All  the  equipment  necessary  is  a  fervid  tempera- 
ment and  all  the  training  required  is  the  submission  of 
that  temperament  to  certain  patent  processes  of.  emotion- 
al hysteria.  "The  secrets  of  the  Lord  are  with  the 
simple,"  and  the  simple  too  often  means  the  simpleton  in 
popular  understanding.  Is  it  not  written,  "out  of  the 
mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  hast  Thou  ordained 
strength?"  Yes,  did  not  the  Master  say,  "Thou  hast 
hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent  and  revealed 
them  unto  babes."  The  temptation  will  often  come  to 
you  in  your  ministry  to  abandon  the  study  and  the 
prayer  closet,  neglect  hard  intellectual  and  spiritual  dis- 
cipline, and  run  after  cheap  and  easy  ways  of  attaining  a 
reputation  for  spiritual  power,  or  as  I  once  heard  it 
called,  "the  pungent  power  of  the  spirit." 

Let  me  say  this  to  you  out  of  a  somewhat  extended 
experience — the  ministry  has  a  plentiful  supply  of  babes 
and  sucklings  at  present,  and  most  of  them  give  no 
particular  evidence  of  having  received  any  special  re- 
velation or  attained  extraordinary  spiritual  wisdom.  The'\ 
prophetic  ministry  for  today  demands  strong  men,  the 
strongest  men  that  can  be  found.  For  there  will  be  in 
your  congregations  not  only  "babes  to  be  fed  with 
milk"  but  strong  men  and  strong  women  too  who  need 
and  demand  "strong  meat,"  and  you  must  be  able  to 
give  it. 

Bring  to  your  ministry  your  best  at  its  best.  The  min- 
istry today  requires  the  finest  abilities,  the  largest  equip- 
ment and  the  completest  training  a  man  can  bring  to  it. 


42  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

I  know  of  no  calling  that  makes  more  searching  or 
varied  demands.  There  is  no  more  inane  line  in  our 
hymnody  (and  that  is  saying  much)  than  that  in 
a  certain  popular  hymn,  "A  broken  and  emptied  vessel, 
for  the  Master's  use  made  meet."  The  Master  has  no 
particular  use  for  broken  crockery.  He  needs  the  finest  and 
most  polished  human  instruments  to  do  His  work.  There- 
fore bring  to  the  altar  of  consecration  the  best  developed 
and  trained  mind,  the  largest  knowledge,  the  deepest 
thought,  the  profoundest  study  and  research  you  can 
achieve,  and  He  will  fuse  them;  into  the  fittest  tools  for 
His  tasks  and  the  best  media  for  His  revelations. 

Above  all,  remember  God  wants  not  simply  tools  or 
instruments  but  men  to  do  His  work  and  men  who  will 
be  not  slaves  or  even  servants  to  do  His  bidding,  but 
**fellow  workers  with  God,"  those  who  can  "think  His 
thoughts  after  Him"  and  share  His  purposes.  As  I  have 
said  before,  He  wants  not  an  organ  but  a  musician  who 
can  interpret  sympathetically  the  mind  of  the  Great 
Composer.  Christ  said  to  the  apostles  "Henceforth  I 
call  you  not  servants,  for  the  servant  knoweth  not  what 
His  Lord  doeth,  but  I  have  called  you  friends."  Let 
that  be  your  ideal.  Aspire  to  be  a  "friend  of  Christ,'* 
and  fit  yourself  for  that  friendship.  When  Ezekiel  gro- 
velled in  the  dust  before  God,  the  Lord  said  unto  him, 
"Son  of  Man,  stand  on  thy  feet  and  I  will  talk  with  thee." 
Learn  to  stand  on  your  feet,  in  the  presence  of  God, 
though  you  take  the  shoes  off  your  feet,  for  the  ground 
on  which  you  stand  is  holy.  Learn  to  look  God  in  the 
face.  Bring  to  Him  a  will,  not  broken  and  merged  in 
His,  but  strengthened  and  disciplined,  that  you  may  share 
in  his  purposes  as  friend  does  with  friend. 

One  last  word,  and  that  about  your  own  devotional 
life.  I  know  full  well  the  hindrances  that  beset  it  in 
our  busy  and  distracted  days.    I  know  more  the  supreme 


The  Prophetic  Succession  43 

difficulty  of  prayer,  meditation  and  "the  practice  of  the 
presence  of  God."  It  comes  high.  It  costs  much,  this 
devotional  life.  But  it  is  worth  any  price  we  have  to 
pay  for  it.  Without  it,  the  most  eloquent  preaching  and 
the  most  indefatigable  toil  are  shorn  of  all  spiritual 
power.  There  is  no  Word  of  God  in  the  utterance  and 
no  power  of  God  in  the  service.  Paderewski  said  "If 
I  neglect  my  practice  one  day  I  know  it,  two  days,  my 
critics  know  it,  three  days  my  audience  know  it."  Be 
sure  if  you  neglect  the  cultivation  of  your  own  spiritual 
life,  your  own  communion  with  God,  your  people  will 
know  it  in  the  deadness  of  your  ministry,  even  if  they 
cannot  define  the  cause.  And  the  minister  is  most  apt 
of  all  men  to  neglect  the  devotional  life.  He  talks  so 
much  about  it  to  others  that  he  gets  to  imagine  he  has 
practiced  it  in  the  talking  about  it.  Like  the  church 
bell,  he  frequently  calls  to  prayer  but  goes  not  himself. 

I  crossed  the  Atlantic  recently  on  a  steamer  that  car- 
ried the  most  powerful  wireless  apparatus  in  use.  The 
air  was  laden  with  messages  from  out  the  unseen.  But 
most  of  the  ships  heard  but  partially.  To  receive  them 
all  required  two  things,  the  finest  and  most  powerful 
instruments  possible,  and  those  instruments  constantly 
attuned  to  the  wave  length  of  the  sending  instrument. 
God  is  ever  speaking  to  men.  His  messages  abound 
everywhere.  All  hear  Him  more  or  less  in  the  voice 
of  conscience.  But  if  you  would  be  a  prophet,  an  inter-j 
preter  of  the  fuller  and  finer  messages  of  God  to  yourl 
fellows,  you  must  offer  Him  the  finest  and  fullest  spiri-f 
tual  personality  you  can  achieve  and  then  keep  that  per-j 
sonality  constantly  attuned  to  the  mind  of  God.  ' 

Christ  chose  twelve  men,  first  to  be  with  Him  and 
then  to  send  them  forth.  These  are  the  two  processes 
that  make  the  true  apostle.  The  first  is  ineffective  and 
abortive  without  the   second.     A  purely  individualistic 


44  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

piety  ends  in  spiritual  selfishness  and  finally  grows  rancid. 
But  the  second  is  invalid  without  the  first.  It  is  the 
secret  of  the  spiritual  failure  of  many  an  otherwise  prom- 
ising ministry.  The  reality  and  vitality  of  your  message 
depends  upon  the  closeness  and  constancy  of  your  com- 
munion with  Christ.  If  you  faithfully  and  persistently 
cultivate  the  Divine  companionship  and  friendship,  men 
will  "take  knowledge  of  you  that  you  have  been  with 
Jesus." 


Ill 

The  Prophetic  Inheritance 

WE  of  the  Christian  Ministry  have  an  ancient 
Hneage.  We  stand  in  the  prophetic  succession. 
Our  spiritual  ancestor  is  the  Hebrew  prophet. 
We  share  with  him  his  mission — to  be  an  interpreter  of 
the  will  and  mind  of  God — a  messenger  of  the  Most 
High. 

And  I  have  made  bold  to  say  that  we  may  share  also 
his  gifts  of  inspiration,  if  we  bring  to  God  a  whole  and 
consecrated  personaHty,  all  our  best  at  its  best,  our  fullest 
equipment  of  knowledge,  learning,  trained  and  disciplined 
abilities,  fused  and  focussed  by  a  supreme  devotion  to 
the  one  purpose  of  our  ministry  and  sensitized  for  the 
reception  of  the  Divine  message  by  the  diligent,  per- 
sistent "practice  of  the  presence  of  God." 

But  what  is  the  message  of  the  Christian  prophet? 
What  is  the  burden  of  the  Lord  that  is  laid  upon  him? 
What  is  the  Word  of  the  Lord  that  is  put  into  his  mouth? 

First  let  us  consider  what  was  the  message  of  the 
Hebrew  prophet.  It  stands  to  reason  that  with  our 
spiritual  lineage  and  ancestry,  there  comes  some  measure 
at  least  of  spiritual  inheritance. 

The  most  casual  and  superficial  student  of  Hebrew 
prophecy  must  admit  that  the  prophet's  message  was 
chiefly,  if  not  exclusively,  what  we  should  call  nowa- 
days a  social  message.  The  prophet  had  not  the  remotest 
conception  of  our  modern  notion  of  religion  as  a  "limited 
liability"  business,  concerned  only  with  theology,  in  the 

45 


46  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

form  of  creed  and  dogma,  ecclesiology,  the  government, 
discipline  and  cultus  of  the  Church,  pious  observances, 
or  even  with  the  mystic  spiritual  life  of  the  individual, 
much  less  with  his  security  or  salvation  in  a  world  be- 
yond. He  had  not  the  discernment  to  distinguish  be- 
tween personal  morality  as  purely  individualistic  conduct 
and  social  ethics.  The  two  were  indissolubly  one  to  him. 
To  him  religion  claimed  not  only  eminent  domain  but 
universal  and  absolute  sovereignty  over  all  human  life  in 
all  its  inter-relations. 

Z'  Consequently  he  ruthlessly  mixed  religion  with  business  , 
industry,  commerce  and  society,  and  meddled  with  poli- 
tics, national  and  international,  and  frequently  got  him- 
self stoned  or  sawn  asunder  for  that  reason. 

All  the  prophets  address  their  message  to  the  nation 
so  continuously  and  almost  exclusively  that  in  the  opin- 
ion of  a  very  respectable  school  of  critics,  even  in  the 
most  apparently  personal  of  the  Psalms,  it  is  personified 
Israel  who  sings  those  songs  of  throbbing  penitence,  sup- 
plication, trust,  thanksgiving  and  rejoicing.  The  later 
prophets  send  their  voices  further,  to  the  outlying  nations 
whom  they  reckon  as  instruments  of  Jehovah's  will  and 
purpose,  if  not  the  objects  of  His  mercy  and  children  of 
His  love.  At  last  in  the  imperial  vision  of  the  second 
Isaiah  the  whole  world  comes  into  view  as  always  the 
rightful,  though  unconscious  and  often  rebellious,  domain 
of  Jehovah  and  destined  finally  to  become  His  loyal  and 
obedient  kingdom  wherein  His  "will  shall  be  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  It  is  only  in  the  poignant 
plaints  of  Jeremiah,  the  expressions  of  a  solitary  spiritual 
experience,  that  the  individual  soul  comes  into  clear  view 
in  Hebrew  prophecy,  and  then  it  is  a  fugitive  figure. 

Perhaps  this  mass-message  of  prophetic  preaching  is 
due  to  that  mass-consciousness,  almost  mob-psychology, 
which  characterizes  the  Hebrew  as  also  almost  all  other 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  47 

ancient  peoples.  The  individual  had  not  yet  been  born; 
at  least  he  had  not  emerged  into  distinct  consciousness. 
He  was  always  merged  in  the  group.  Responsibility  and 
guilt  rested  not  upon  the  individual  but  upon  the  group, 
the  family,  clan,  tribe,  nation.  That  fact  is  curiously  illus- 
trated in  many  Hebrew  customs.  It  governed  trans- 
actions in  real  estate.  The  land  was  the  patrimony  of 
the  family,  clan  or  nation  who  held  it  as  feudatories  of 
Jehovah.  If  any  individual  owner  lost  through  misfor- 
tune or  death  his  claim  or  title,  his  next  of  kin  must 
redeem  it  for  the  family.  It  governed  even  matrimony. 
If  a  man  died  without  issue,  his  next  eligible  kinsman 
must  marry  the  widow  and  raise  up  seed  unto  his  brother. 
It  is  still  more  aptly  illustrated  in  primitive  methods  of 
justice  and  punishment,  especially  in  the  ancient  law  or 
custom  of  ''Goel."  Not  only  most  literally  were  the 
"sins  of  the  fathers  visited  upon  the  children"  but  the 
whole  family,  clan,  tribe  and  nation  became  involved  in 
the  guilt  of  any  individual  offending  member  thereof  and 
it  became  the  sacred  duty  of  the  chosen  "blood-avenger'' 
of  the  injured  group  to  exterminate  if  possible  the  whole 
group  to  which  the  offender  belonged. 

But  whatever  its  roots  and  sources,  obscure  or  patent, 
the  message  of  the  prophet  was  evidently  almost  exclu- 
sively a  mass-message.  It  was  addressed  to  the  personi- 
fied nation  or  nations  or  world,  rarely  to  the  individual. 
In  the  books  of  the  prophets  as  in  the  Psalms,  even  those 
manifestations  of  the  spiritual  life  which  to  us  are  so 
intensely  personal  were  to  them  national.  It  is  Israel 
that  sins,  acknowledges  guilt,  repents,  implores  forgive- 
ness, experiences  the  peace  of  pardon,  is  spiritually  re- 
born, trusts,  loves  and  enters  into  joyous  fellowship  with 
God.  The  message  of  the  prophets  was  a  social  message. 
The  reHgion  of  the  prophets  was  a  social  religion. 


48  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

And  what  were  the  intent  and  content  of  that  message 
and  religion? 

Manifestly  the  commanding  vision  of  Hebrew  prophecy 
now  discerned  dimly  and  partially,  now  flashing  out  in 
imperial  splendor,  is  the  vision  of  "the  kingdom  of  God 
on  earth."  Samuel  conceives  of  Israel  as  a  theocracy 
of  which  he  and  his  sons  were  to  be  the  agents  and 
viceroys.  Elijah  insists  that  that  theocracy  shall  be  a 
monarchy.  He  will  tolerate  no  divided  allegiance  either 
to  under  gods  or  rival  gods.  He  was  a  heno-theist  if  not 
a  monotheist.  "If  Baal  be  god,  follow  him.  But  if 
Jehovah  be  God,  follow  Him." 

There  is  as  yet  little  evidence  of  any  clear  moral  or 
ethical  accent  or  content  in  the  message  of  these  early 
prophets  of  the  deed.  The  kingdom  is  to  be  God's — 
God-centered.  It  is  not  clear  yet  that  it  is  therefore  to  be 
a  kingdom  of  righteousness.  The  discovery  of  Jehovah  as 
the  god  with  a  character,  whose  chief  concern  is  righteous- 
ness, is  probably  a  later  and  gradual  achievement  of 
Hebrew  prophecy.  With  infinite  patience  God  shines 
into  the  hearts  of  His  chosen  interpreters  and  messengers. 
But  the  light  comes  through  windows  of  colored  glass, 
each  pane  stained  and  dimmed,  not  only  with  the  personal 
passions  and  infirmities  of  the  herald  but  with  the  pas- 
sions and  infirmities  of  the  age  and  times.  But  clearer 
and  clearer  grows  upon  His  servants  the  vision  of  the 
God  of  infinite  holiness  and  with  it  kindles  that  zeal  for 
righteousness  which  became  the  characteristic  and  con- 
suming passion  of  Hebrew  prophecy  and  Hebrew  reli- 
gion. Its  fundamental  message  is  Godlikeness  or  Godli- 
ness. "Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy,  saith  your  God."  The 
kingdom  of  God  must  be  the  kingdom  of  universal 
righteousness. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  passing  that  according  to 
the  story  of  Exodus,  perhaps  a  later  reflection  on  earlier 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  49 

facts,  it  was  a  labor  movement  which  first  ethicized  and 
moralized  the  prophetic  conscience — that  great  struggle 
for  industrial  and  social  justice  so  graphically  and  ably 
set  forth  by  a  previous  lecturer  on  this  foundation. 

Possibly  many  a  modern  prophet  in  the  Christian  min- 
istry might  profitably  quicken  and  sensitize  his  lethargic 
and  conventionalized  conscience  and  acquire  a  new  passion 
and  inspiration  in  his  preaching,  if  he  would  get  into 
sympathetic  understanding  with  some  of  the  labor  move- 
ments of  today.  For  whatever  may  be  justly  said  of 
labor's  mistakes  in  practice,  the  main  spirit  and  ideals  of 
the  modern  labor  movement  are  often  in  closer  touch  with 
the  spirit  and  ideals  of  the  Christ  than  much  of  our 
conventional  and  fashionable  religion.  For  instance,  a 
great  Christian  seer  and  prophet  has  said  that  the  war 
'irogram  of  the  British  labor  party  is  the  most  Christian 
document  of  the  times. 

It  was  the  tyranny  and  injustice  of  kings  which  Nathan 
and  Elijah  confronted  like  accusing  angels.  It  was  the 
commercial  dishonesty  and  industrial  oppression  of  his 
day  which  called  forth  the  thunders  and  lightnings,  the 
inspired  wrath  of  Amos,  the  herdsman.  It  was  the  social 
rottenness  of  his  people  which  broke  the  heart  of  Hosea 
and  turned  his  message  into  incoherent  sobs.  Isaiah 
''meddled  with  politics"  all  his  life  until  he  was  sawn  as- 
under. 

In  Micah's  elliptic  speech,  broken  by  passion,  as  George 
Adam  Smith  says,  "pinched  peasant  faces  peer  between 
all  his  words  and  fill  the  ellipses." 

Jeremiah  fiercely  contends  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
serf  and  the  slave,  laments  the  corruption  of  priest  and 
ruler  and  announces  doom  upon  a  corrupt  church  and 
state.  The  priestly  churchman,  Ezekiel,  sees  a  glori- 
fied hierarchy,  centering  in  a  supernatural  temple,  ex- 
tending its  beneficent  life-giving  dominion  over  all  the 


50  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

earth,  but  it  is  simply  his  ecclesiastical  version  of  the  com- 
mon prophetic  vision  of  the  kingdom  of  God  with  its 
universal  sway  of  righteousness.  And  finally  the  mes- 
sage reaches  its  climax  in  the  ^'imperial  vision"  of  the 
great  unknown  who  beholds  like  the  seer  of  Patnos,  a 
heavenly  city,  a  celestial  civilization  "descending  from 
God  out  of  heaven  to  take  possession  of  the  earth." 

The  prophetic  message  then  is  always  and  everywhere 
a  social  message.  It  deals  with  society  rather  than  with 
the  individual.  Religion  is  construed  as  essentially  a  com- 
munity concern,  first  of  the  family,  then  of  the  tribe, 
then  of  the  nation,  and  finally  of  the  nations.  The  sin 
it  condemns  and  the  righteousness  it  commends  are  social 
sin  and  social  righteousness.  Its  final  and  supreme  vision 
and  goal  are  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  this  present  world 
wherein  the  will  of  God  shall  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in 
heaven. 

Down  the  Christian  ages  spreads  this  vision  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  The  prophetic  fire  catches  certain 
outstanding  institutions,  movements  and  men,  and  they 
fiame  out  with  the  zeal  of  the  ancient  seers.  Augustine 
in  his  "Civitas  Dei"  pictures  Christianity  as  a  new  civic 
order  rising  upon  the  crumbling  ruins  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  Savonarola  in  Florence,  Calvin  in  Geneva, 
and  John  Knox  in  Scotland,  attempt  to  set  up  again 
Samuel's  theocratic  rule  of  the  prophet  or  preacher.  The 
mediaeval  Roman  Church  and  the  Puritan  movement, 
diametrically  opposite  and  antagonistic  to  each  other  in 
many  respects,  are  identical  in  this :  both  conceive  of 
themselves  as  Divinely  endowed  with  a  social  and  even 
political  mission;  they  are  to  set  up  the  kingdom  of  God 
in  all  the  affairs  and  relations  of  men,  a  Christian  state, 
national  and  international.  The  one  follows  the  vision  of 
Ezekiel  and  would  establish  the  reign  of  the  hierarchy, 
the  supreme  rule  of  the  priest ;  the  other  follows  Samuel 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  51 

and  would  set  up  the  theocracy  of  the  prophet,  the 
supreme  rule  of  the  preacher.  Each  results  in  an  equally 
intolerable  tyranny,  for  neither  priest  nor  prophet  can 
safely  be  trusted  with  practical  government  and  political 
power.  He  is  too  apt  to  confuse  his  self-will  with  his 
conscience.  The  established  Church  in  England,  Ger- 
many, and  elsewhere  conceives  itself  as  the  religious 
aspect  of  the  state. 

And  now  the  ancient  vision  has  touched  anew  the  mind 
of  modern  Christendom.  It  has  quickened  into  life  and 
power  that  characteristic  outbirth  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury, the  Christian  social  conscience. 

Multitudes  of  pulpits  thunder  with  denunciations  of 
social  sin,  wrong  and  injustice,  and  preach  the  social 
gospel.  Commissions  are  appointed  by  various  ecclesias- 
tical bodies  to  study  the  relation  of  Christianity  to  all 
the  problems  and  questions  of  the  day,  and  issue  their 
reports,  declarations  and  platforms  as  to  the  Church's 
duty  in  such  matters,  many  of  them  sufficiently  radical 
to  distress  sadly  the  upholders  of  the  settled  order  or  ac- 
cepted disorder  which  rules  the  business  and  industrial 
world,  and  alarm  the  champions  of  so-called  'Vested 
rights"  which  is  often  but  another  term  for  "invested 
wrongs."  For  instance,  the  Interchurch  World  Move- 
ment gives  birth  to  a  commission  which  investigates  a 
strike  in  the  greatest  industrial  organization  in  the 
world  and  uncovers  intolerable  conditions,  injustices  and 
tyrannies  in  that  organization;  and  forthwith  the  move- 
ment dies  in  that  child-birth,  perhaps  because  the  pos- 
sessors of  large  wealth  are  naturally  not  willing  to  sup- 
port a  movement  which  so  directly  attacks  the  possible 
sources  of  their  income. 

And  so  everywhere  is  heard  the  pious  sigh  or  the  indig- 
nant demand  for  a  return  to  the  "simple  gospel,"  the 


52  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

dear  old  gospel  of  our  grandfathers  and  particularly 
of  our  grandmothers. 

And  what  is  this  simple  gospel  to  which  we  are  so 
earnestly  exhorted  to  return?  It  is,  for  the  most  part, 
a  certain  version  of  modern  popular  Protestantism  which 
would  completely  cut  off  the  entail  of  our  prophetic 
inheritance.  It  makes  the  gospel  purely  individualistic 
and  religion  exclusively  personal.  Christianity  is  con- 
cerned only  with  the  individual  soul.  Its  business  is 
solely  to  save  souls.  That  phrase,  "the  salvation  of  souls," 
has  two  interpretations.  One  is  eschatological.  It  con- 
cerns security  in  the  world  beyond.  It  often  degener- 
ates simply  into  a  system  of  life  assurance  and  perhaps 
fire  insurance  for  a  future  existence.  A  nobler  inter- 
pretation makes  salvation  ethical  and  moral.  It  means 
the  building  up  of  the  individual  soul  in  character  "to- 
wards the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of 
Christ."  But  in  either  case  it  is  utterly  individualistic. 
Its  only  possible  eflfect  on  society  is  indirect.  The  busi- 
ness of  the  social  reformer  is  to  make  a  better  world  for 
people  to  live  in.  The  business  of  religion  is  to  make 
better  people  to  live  in  the  world.  And  if  we  make 
better  people  we  shall  have  a  better  world.  Regenerate 
and  inspire  with  Christ-like  motives  every  man,  woman 
and  child,  and  we  shall  have  Christian  families,  homes, 
business,  industry,  politics,  national  and  international, 
and  so  in  the  end  a  Christian  world,  a  kingdom  of  God 
on  earth.  The  millenium  will  have  arrived  and  Christ 
will  rule  everywhere.  But  the  approach  to  that  vision 
and  goal  must  be  exclusively  through  the  individual. 
Religion  has  a  strictly  confined  application  and  the  church 
is  a  "limited  liability"  corporation.  They  are  concerned 
only  with  the  personal,  moral  and  spiritual  life  of  the 
individual. 

Let  us  consider  briefly  the  usual  argument  for  the 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  53 

"simple"  or  exclusively  individualistic  gospel.  Jesus 
Christ,  it  is  declared,  completely  reversed  the  program  of 
the  prophets.  They  dealt  with  the  mass.  He  dealt  with 
separate  souls  only.  They  addressed  their  message  to 
society.  He  spoke  directly  to  the  personal  conscience 
and  will.  He  brought  the  peace  of  pardon  to  the  guilty 
and  repenting  sinner,  a  new  trust  in  the  love  of  the 
Father  to  the  despairing.  Through  faith  He  endowed 
the  broken-willed  with  a  power  from  on  high  which 
made  them  victors  over  the  world;  He  gave  the  sordid 
and  selfish  a  new  vision  of  the  meaning  of  life  as  the 
self-sacrificing  service  of  God  and  men;  He  brought 
the  lonely  into  a  new  sense  of  fellowship  with  God  and 
His  saints:  He  illumined  the  eyes  of  the  dying  and  the 
hearts  of  the  bereaved  with  the  light  of  a  blessed  here- 
after.   There  His  mission  stopped. 

When  asked  to  settle  a  disputed  inheritance,  He  replied 
indignantly,  **Man,  who  made  Me  a  judge  or  divider  over 
you,"  and  warned  against  covetousness.  So  saying  He 
shook  Himself  free  from  all  entanglement  with  merely 
material  questions.  He  was  not  concerned  with  the  kind 
of  coat  a  man  wore,  the  kind  of  house  he  lived  in  or  the 
kind  of  food  he  ate,  but  only  with  the  kind  of  man  he  was. 
He  would  enable  men  to  be  independent  of  circumstances, 
to  put  first  things  first.  "The  life  is  more  than  meat  and 
the  body  than  raiment"  and,  by  implication,  the  soul  more 
than  all  else  put  together.  Therefore  Jesus  could  have 
taken  no  interest  whatsoever  in  what  we  call  industrial 
or  social  problems  which  concern  themselves  primarily 
with  material  things.  He  was  no  social  reformer.  He 
would  not  meddle  with  business. 

He  steadily  refused  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
any  popular  political  movement,  though  solicited  again 
and  again  to  do  so  and  though  he  had  ardent  political 
reformers    and    revolutionists,    like    Simon   the    Zealot, 


54  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

among  His  followers.  He  was  no  political  reformer, 
least  of  all  a  revolutionary.  He  would  not  meddle  with 
politics. 

He  dealt  with  the  single  soul  and  let  society  alone.  He 
discovered  the  individual  and  confined  Himself  to  the 
individual.     He  preached  the  "simple  Gospel." 

So  runs  the  argument  and  it  sounds  strong. 

But  certain  suspicions  start  up  at  the  very  beginning 
of  our  consideration  of  this  statement. 

How  did  Jesus  manage  to  get  Himself  crucified,  if  He 
confined  Himself  solely  to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  in- 
dividual souls?  How  did  it  happen  that  He  shared  the 
comimon  fate  of  the  prophets, — persecution  and  martyr- 
dom,— if  He  did  not  share  in  any  wise  the  mission  and 
message  of  the  prophets?  The  "simple  gospel"  of  today 
provokes  no  antagonisms  or  even  criticism  among  the 
privileged  classes.  It  wins  their  condescending  patron- 
age and  often  their  generous  support  as  the  securest  bul- 
wark of  "things  as  they  are"  against  disturbance,  where- 
as the  first  followers  of  Jesus  were  described  as  "these 
men  who  turn  the  world  upside  down"  and  Jesus  Him- 
self was  accused  of  being  an  agitator.  "He  stirreth  up 
the  people."  He  was  always  most  uncomfortable  to 
those  same  "privileged  classes"  in  church  and  state  and 
was  finally  put  out  of  the  way  by  them. 

And  how  is  it  also  that  Bouck  White  and  his  ilk  can 
construct  an  equally  specious  argument  from  the  words 
and  acts  of  Jesus,  proving  that  He  was  a  labor  agita- 
tor, social  reformer  and  political  revolutionist?  Cer- 
tainly St.  Luke's  version  of  our  Lord's  teaching  with 
its  frequent  and  fiery  denunciations  of  unearned  and 
unrighteous  wealth  and  promises  to  unearned  poverty, 
and  its  "magnificat,"  the  birth-song  of  political,  economic 
and  industrial  democracy,  gives  some  ground  for  such 
an  argument,  unless  all  these  utterances  be  comfortably 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  55 

explained  away  as  interpolations  from  some  Ebionitic 
source. 

Let  us  go  back  to  the  record.  The  first  thing  there 
which  strikes  the  most  casual  reader  is  that  the  constantly 
repeated  and  dominant  note  of  Jesus'  utterances,  the 
main  burden  of  His  whole  message,  is  conspicuous  by 
its  absence  from  the  "simple  gospel"  of  today. 

The  preachers  of  the  "simple  gospel"  are  always  talk- 
ing about  "saving  souls"  as  the  one  end  of  religion.  Jesus 
has  little  to  say  about  saving  souls.  The  salvation  of 
souls  is  a  by-product  in  a  larger  process.  Indeed  a  man 
can  save  his  soul  only  as  he  forgets  it  in  a  bigger  inter- 
est. To  translate  quite  literally  one  of  his  sayings :  "He 
that  will  save  his  soul  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  will  lose 
his  soul  for  my  sake  and  the  gospel's  shall  find  it." 

And  what  is  His  gospel  ?  Always,  invariably,  continu- 
ously it  is  the  gospel  of  the  Kingdom,  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  the  Kingdom  of  heaven.  Those  phrases  are  re- 
iterated to  the  point  of  monotony.  "The  Kingdom"  is 
the  word  of  the  Lord  that  burns  like  fire  in  His  heart,  the 
burden  of  the  Lord  that  is  laid  upon  Him.  "The  King- 
dom" is  the  one  aim  and  purpose  of  His  mission.  It 
is  the  object  and  goal  of  all  Christian  aspiration,  prayer, 
labor  and  sacrifice.  It  is  the  treasure  above  all  price,  hid 
in  the  field,  for  joy  of  finding  which  the  discoverer  is 
willing  to  sell  all  that  he  has. 

And  yet  we  almost  never  hear  that  phrase  from  the  lips 
of  the  preacher  of  the  simple  gospel,  particularly  the 
popular  revivalist.  His  whole  message  is,  "save  your 
soul,"  a  doctrine  of  supreme  selfishness,  all  the  worse 
for  being  a  pseudo-spiritual  selfishness. 

"The  kingdom  of  God,"  the  "kingdom  of  heaven," — 
what  confusion  and  havoc  of  thought  that  phrase  has 
wrouglit  among  preachers,  theologians  and  ecclesiastics. 

Popularly  we  posit  it  in  the  hereafter.     It  is  paradise 


56  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

or  heaven  and  we  pray  **Lord,  bring  us  into  thy  king- 
dom when  we  die."  But  Jesus  always  posits  it  in  this 
present  world  and  prays  "Thy  kingdom  come,"  that  is, 
"thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 

Ecclesiastically  we  identify  it  with  the  visible  church, 
with  all  its  rites,  sacraments,  rules,  canons,  hierarchy  and 
government,  whereas  it  is  most  difficult  to  prove  from 
the  gospels  that  Jesus  ever  thought  much  about  any 
form  of  ecclesiastical  organization,  and  still  more  diffi- 
cult to  prove  that  He  founded  such  an  organization. 
The  only  loop-hole  for  the  introduction  of  such  a  sup- 
position is  the  blessed  silence  of  the  forty  days  after 
the  resurrection  wherein,  according  to  St.  Luke,  He 
spake  "to  His  disciples  of  the  things  concerning  the 
Kingdom  of  God,"  and  He  is  therefore  declared  by  some 
to  have  drawn  up  a  complete  plan  with  detailed  specifi- 
cations for  the  ecclesiastical  organization  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  with  its  full  hierarchy  of  bishops,  priests  and 
deacons  and  possibly  a  liturgy  and  a  code  of  canons.  But 
I  can  not  think  that  He  talked  of  "the  things  concerning 
the  kingdom"  in  any  other  wise  or  fashion  than  He 
talked  of  them  in  His  parables  and  teachings  while  He 
dwelt  among  men  in  the  flesh. 

Theologically  the  kingdom  has  been  subliminated  into 
that  state  of  mystical  inward  peace  in  the  individual  soul 
wherein  every  "thought  of  the  heart  is  brought  into  capti- 
vity to  the  glad  and  loving  obedience  of  Christ."  Thank 
God,  that  form  of  the  kingdom  is  a  blessed  reality  of 
Christian  experience,  and  it  is  the  root,  origin  and  source 
of  every  and  any  form  of  the  kingdom  that  can  be  valid. 
But  its  exclusive  claim  to  the  whole  term  goes  to  pieces 
when  we  re-read  the  proof-text  on  which  alone  it  is 
supposed  to  rest.  It  is  not  "the  kingdom  of  God  is  with- 
in you,"  but  "the  kingdom  of  God  is  among  you." 

What  then  is  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  dominant  note 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  57 

of  Jesus  teaching,  the  burden  of  His  message,  the  object 
of  His  mission  and  the  commanding  vision  and  ultimate 
goal  of  Christian  faith,  aspiration  and  endeavor?  It  can 
not  be  defined.  It  is  too  vast,  subtle,  spiritual  to  be 
cast  into  and  contained  within  any  rigid  form  of  human 
words. 

But  at  least  this  must  be  evident  to  the  blindest.  It 
involves  social  implications  of  illimitable  reach  and  ap- 
plication. To  quote  a  recent  Lambeth  report, — "Any 
definition  of  the  kingdom  of  God  must  assuredly  contain 
the  ideal  of  'human  life  according  to  God's  intention'." 
It  means,  as  -Bishop  Gore  has  said,  "All  human  society 
reformed  (or  as  I  should  say  regenerated)  until  it  shall 
be  according  to  the  will  of  God."  Our  Lord's  own  words 
put  it  more  completely  and  succinctly,  "Thy  kingdom 
come,"  that  is,  "thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in 
heaven." 

I  submit  that  this  is  the  vision  of  the  prophets  and  of 
the  seer  of  the  Apocalypse  raised  to  the  nth  power,  the 
celestial  civilization  descending  from  God  out  of  heaven 
to  possess  the  earth,  the  universal  soveieignty  of  God's 
will  of  righteousness  and  love.  Yes,  Jesus  set  before 
Him  the  same  goal  toward  which  the  prophets  pressed. 
He  saw  it  in  infinitely  clearer  and  completer  form.  The 
urge  of  that  vision  was  upon  Him  constantly.  He  felt 
it  and  responded  to  it  as  no  prophet  ever  did.  It  was 
the  one  theme  of  His  teaching,  the  supreme  end  of  His 
mission. 

Yet  did  He  never  sink  into  the  mere  social  reformer, 
much  less  into  the  political  revolutionist.  He  refused 
to  be  judge  or  divider  in  particular  questions.  He  declined 
to  head  any  popular  movement  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
existing  order  and  the  substitution  therefor  of  some  new 
form  of  society,  political,  industrial  or  economic. 

I  cannot  construe  Him  in  any  way  as  an  agitator  or 


58  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

revolutionist,  not  because  of  lack  of  concern  for  the  end, 
but  because  of  His  sure  vision  of  the  only  means  effec- 
tive for  attaining  that  end. 

He  saw  that  what  human  life  and  society  needed  was 
not  so  much  reformation,  new  forms  in  which  to  express 
and  organize  themselves,  as  a  regeneration,  a  new  heart 
and  spirit.  And  only  the  knowledge,  recognition  and 
obedience  of  the  will  and  love  of  God  could  bring  about 
that  regeneration.  Therefore  His  whole  attitude  toward 
all  social  problems  was  characterized,  as  Dr.  Peabody 
has  so  well  put  it,  "by  the  view  from  above  and  the  ap- 
proach from  within."  He  was  concerned  not  about 
methods  but  about  motives,  not  about  policies  but  about 
principles,  not  with  the  machinery,  (that  is  the  rightful 
business  of  reformers  and  statesmen),  but  with  dynamics, 
the  rightful  business  of  the  prophet  and  man  of  God. 

For  this  reason,  because  of  His  "view  from  above 
and  approach  from  within,"  He  deals  with  the  whole 
problem  with  surer  touch  and  with  infinitely  more  effec- 
tive power  than  all  the  reformers  and  revolutionists  his- 
tory has  known.  Reformers  and  revolutionists  pass,  each 
effecting  his  little  change  in  the  outward  structure  of 
society  whereby  it  may  come  into  somewhat  closer  con- 
formity to  the  vision  and  plan  of  a  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth,  whereby  its  ideal  of  justice  and  righteousness  may 
be  a  little  more  closely  approximated.  But  Jesus  remains 
"the  same  yesterday,  today  and  forever,"  uttering  those 
eternal  verities  and  everlasting  principles  upon  which 
every  true  reformer  must  staad,  if  he  is  to  have  any 
footing,  anv  "pen  sto,"  to  accomplish  his  work,  breathing 
into  all  true  servants  of  humanity  the  spirit  which  alone 
can  sustain  them  in  their  warfare  and  toil.  The  pro- 
gress of  humanity  towards  its  God-appointed  goal  o^yes 
more  to  Jesus  Christ  than  to  all  other  seers  and  champions 
of  that  cause  put  together.     They  all  rest  consciously 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  59 

or  unconsciously  upon  Him.  Even  the  most  blatant 
scoffer  at  the  Christian  Church  will  often  quote  Jesus  as 
the  authority  for  the  ideal,  if  not  for  the  method,  of  his 
reform. 

There  is  enough  social  dynamite  in  the  utterances  of 
Jesus  to  blow  to  bits  every  tyranny  and  oppression,  every 
wrong  and  injustice  however  hoary  with  age  and  but- 
tressed with  custom  and  ancient  privilege,  under  which 
humanity  groans.    Only  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  norm-\ 
ally   works  like   leaven  rather  than   like   dynamite.     It  I 
generally  changes  society  by  evolution   rather   than  by/ 
revolution.    It  is  constructive  rather  than  destructive.    ./ 

But  there  are  not  wanting  in  it  the  seeds  of  revolution. 
The  former  Russian  and  Turkish  regimes  recognized  that 
fact  and  large  portions  of  the  New  Testament  were 
deleted  by  the  censor  before  the  book  was  allowed  to 
circulate  in  the  vernacular.  Wherever  Christian  mis- 
sions have  carried  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  as  in  China  and 
Japan,  there  have  followed  always  movements  of  political 
and  social  reform.  And  the  leaders  of  these  movements 
have  been  for  the  most  part  educated  in  Christian  mis- 
sion schools.  And  in  nominally  Christian  lands,  it  is  the 
Christian  conscience  which  is  the  active  element  in  the 
new  social  conscience  of  the  day.  This  is  the  ferment 
working  steadily  in  the  universal  discontent  of  the  world 
today  and  it  will  not  rest  until  the  Kingdom  of  God  be 
come. 

Let  me  illustrate  Jesus'  view  from  above  and  approach 
within. 

He  refused  to  lead  any  insurrection  or  revolution 
against  the  imperialism  of  the  Roman  government,  or 
the  ecclesiasticism  of  the  Jewish  hierarchy,  oppressive  as 
those  despotisms  were.  But  He  said  to  His  disciples 
*'Be'ye  not  called  Rabbi,  for  one  is  your  Master  even 
Christ  and  all  ye  are  brethren.     And  call  no  man  your 


60  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

father  upon  earth,  for  one  is  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven.  Neither  be  ye  called  Master,  for  one  is  your 
Master,  even  Christ.  But  he  that  is  greatest  among  you 
sfhall  be  your  servant.  And  whosoever  shall  exalt  himself 
shall  be  abased  and  he  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be 
exalted."  Before  such  words  the  pompous  claims  and 
titles  of  ecclesiastical  hierarchies  fade  into  foolishness 
and  futility. 

Or  again,  "They  that  are  accounted  to  rule  over  the 
heathen,  lord  it  over  them  and  their  great  ones  exercise 
authority  upon  them.  But  so  it  shall  not  be  among  you : 
but  whosoever  will  be  great  among  you  shall  be  your 
minister.  And  whosoever  will  be  chief  est,  shall  be  ser- 
vant of  all.  For  even  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto  but  to  minister  and  to  give  His  life  a 
ransom  for  many." 

No  political  democracy  had  existed  in  the  world  up  to 
that  time,  for  even  the  so-called  democracy  of  Athens 
was  an  aristocracy  based  on  a  slave  class.  Nothing  but 
autocracies  were  known  in  church  or  state.  And  yet 
in  these  words  are  contained  all  the  seed-principles,  the 
very  dynamic  of  democracy  everywhere  and  always. 
They  set  forth  the  ideal,  the  very  raison  d'etre  of 
democracy.  The  very  nomenclature  of  democracy  is 
derived  therefrom.  In  an  autocracy  the  ruler  is  sovereign, 
the  citizens  are  subjects.  In  a  democracy  the  citizens  are 
sovereigns  as  brethren  in  one  commonweal  or  common 
wealth,  and  the  office  holders  are  supposed  at  least  to  be 
executives  of  the  popular  will  and  servants  of  the  com- 
mon well-being.  The  ideal  of  democracy  is  the  suprem- 
acy of  service  as  the  rule  of  autocracy  is  the  supremacy 
of  authority  and  force. 

Out  of  that  ideal  of  Christ  have  sprung  all  the  political 
democracies  of  history  and  out  of  it  shall  come,  I  be- 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  61 

lieve,  eventually  a  real  democracy  in  industry  and  society 
at  large. 

Or  again  take  St.  Paul  who  caught  the  spirit  of  his 
Master.  He  faced  chattel  slavery  in  perhaps  its  worst 
form.  He  did  not  stir  up  a  slave  war  or  insurrection.  He 
even  exhorted  slaves  to  be  "obedient  unto  their  masters 
according  to  the  flesh"  and  sent  back  one  fugitive  slave 
to  his  Christian  owner.  But  he  bade  the  slaves  remember 
that  they  served  one  Master  even  Christ,  yea,  that  they 
were  Christ's  free  men,  and  the  masters  remember  that 
they  also  had  "a  Master  in  heaven  with  Whom  was  no 
respect  of  persons,"  that  they  were  Christ's  servants.  And 
he  sent  back  the  runaway  slave  with  this  message  to 
his  owner  "Receive  this  man  no  longer  as  a  servant  but 
as  a  brother  beloved  both  in  the  flesh  but  especially  in 
the  Lord."  Before  such  principles  chattel  slavery  could 
not  stand  and  it  has  disappeared  wherever  Christianity 
has  gone. 

Or  again  Paul  declares  "There  is  no  longer  Greek  nor 
Jew,  circumcision  nor  uncircumcision,  barbarian,  Scy- 
thian, bond  nor  free,  but  Christ  is  all  and  in  all." 

There  is  the  Christian  basis  for  the  new  international- 
ism that  is  surely  dawning  upon  the  world  today,  the 
new  conception  of  the  unity  of  humanity  in  all  races  and 
peoples.  Upon  that  foundation  must  all  future  leagues 
and  covenants  of  the  nations  be  founded  if  they  are  to 
stand. 

"Like  a  mighty  army  moves  the  Church  of  God"  in 
His  eternal  warfare  with  the  evil  wherever  it  is  to  be 
found.  Every  Christian  soldier  is  enlisted  in  that  war- 
fare and  his  concern  is  not  less  but  more  than  that  of 
the  mere  reformer,  for  he  is  consciously  fighting  the 
Lord's  battle  under  the  orders  of  the  Captain  of  his 
salvation.  Though  his  weapons  be  spiritual  and  not 
carnal  like  those  of  the  revolutionist,  nor  political  like 


62  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

the  reformer,  they  are  not  therefore  less  but  more  effec- 
tive. 

It  is  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  that  is  committed  to 
us  by  our  Master  and  His  apostles.  And  that  kingdom 
means  nought  less  than  the  universal  sovereignty  of  God's 
will  of  righteousness  and  love.  That  sovereignty  will 
brook  no  artificial  limitations.  It  cannot  be  confined  to 
the  individual  or  personal  life  and  shut  out  of  any  realm 
of  the  common  life,  whether  it  be  business,  industry,  soci- 
ety or  politics,  national  or  international.  It  claims  uni- 
versal dominion  and  will  be  content  with  nought  less. 
The  Church  and  her  ministry  can  recognize  no  limited 
liability.  We  can  not  confine  ourselves  to  the  pieties  of 
observance,  the  proprieties  of  personal  behavior,  or  even 
the  mystic  spiritual  experience  and  life  of  the  individual 
soul.  Whatever  question  or  problem  concerns  righteous- 
ness, justice  and  the  Will  of  God,  or  the  well-being,  phys- 
ical, mental,  moral  and  spiritual,  of  any  children  of  God, 
(And  what  question  or  problem  does  not?  Every  one 
has  an  ethical  or  moral  core  or  axis), — that,  so  far  as  it 
does  concern  these  vital  and  Christian  issues,  is  our  ques- 
tion and  problem  with  which  we  are  bound  to  deal  under 
our  commission  from  our  Master.  The  gospel  may  be 
"simple"  in  its  underlying  and  elementary  principles,  but 
it  is  infinitely  varied  and  complex  in  its  practical  applica- 
tions.   And  we  have  to  deal  with  all. 

We  are  fellow  workmen  with  God  in  the  upbuilding 
of  that  structure  of  human  life  and  society  which  is  to 
be  His  temple  and  abiding-place. 

Two  things  are  necessary  to  the  rightness  or  "righteous- 
ness" of  any  structure, — sound  materials  and  good  archi- 
tecture, the  putting  of  those  materials  together  in  right 
relations.  Both  are  our  concern  in  the  building  of 
this  temple  of  humanity  for  the  indwelling  of  God. 

We  have  our  gospel  to  the  individual.    Society  is  built 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  63 

up  of  individuals.  Personal  character  is  the  material 
which  enters  into  its  construction.  We  must  see  that 
that  material  is  sound. 

But  we  are  also  concerned  with  the  architecture,  else 
however  sound  the  materials,  it  can  not  be  a  fitting  abode 
for  the  Spirit  of  God,  yea,  it  can  not  even  stand.  We 
may  not  be  able,  or  be  called  upon,  to  draw  the  plans  or 
write  out  the  specifications  for  that  architecture.  That  is 
the  business  of  experts.  But  we  are  bound  to  insist  that 
they  shall  be  drawn  on  right  principles. 

Or  to  change  the  figure,  society  is  the  "grand  man,"  to 
use  Swedenborg's  phrase.  It  is  intended  to  be,  like  the 
Church,  the  body  of  Christ.  It  is  our  business  to  treat 
"with  the  wholesome  medicines  of  the  Word"  the  indi- 
vidual members  of  that  body,  that  they  may  be  healthy 
and  capable  of  right  functioning  in  the  service  of  the 
whole.  But  if  the  general  circulation  be  so  diseased  that 
it  poisons  the  individual  members,  it  is  not  enough  to  treat 
the  members  with  specifics  after  the  manner  of  quacks. 
We  must  do  our  best  to  cleanse  the  general  circulation 
of  the  whole  body. 

It  is  a  dual  gospel,  this  gospel  of  the  kingdom  which  is 
committed  to  us.  It  has  its  message  to  the  individual  and 
it  has  its  message  to  society.  We  can  neglect  neither. 
The  most  critical  and  difficult  business  of  our  preaching 
is  to  keep  our  accents  duly  balanced  and  proportioned. 
Will  and  environment,  personality  and  conditions,  these 
are  the  two  forces  that  make  character,  one  by  inward 
inspiration  and  effort  and  the  other  by  outward  pressure 
and  subtle  influence. 

The  social  reformer  generally  and  the  preacher  of  the 
social  gospel  often  over-stress  and  over-emphasize  the 
power  of  environment,  sometimes  to  the  destruction  of  all 
sense  of  personal  responsibility,  the  unravelling  of  the 
very  fibre  of  character  and  the  undermining  of  the  will 


64  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

itself.  Under  the  influences  of  that  false  accent,  men 
throw  the  blame  for  their  moral  failures  and  disasters 
upon  things  and  forces  outside  of  themselves.  They  lose 
all  sense  of  the  reality  of  personal  sin.  As  Aaron  said 
when  rebuked  by  Moses  for  setting  up  the  golden  calf : 
'T  took  the  gold  the  people  gave  me  and  put  it  into  the 
fire  and  there  came  out  this  calf."  So  we  say  when 
brought  face  to  face  with  our  sins,  our  caricatures  of 
character :  'T  am  not  responsible.  I  took  the  gold  of  my 
heredity  and  put  it  into  the  fire  of  my  circumstances  and 
there  came  out  this  calf." 

We  must  remember  that  we  have  a  faith  to  give  to 
men  which  can  make  them  conquerors  over  their  circum- 
stances, victors  over  their  world.  If  the  business  man 
says,  as  he  often  does  say,  *T  can  not  act  on  Christian 
principles  in  my  business.  The  system  will  not  allow  it. 
I  should  go  to  the  wall  if  I  tried,"  it  is  our  duty  to  say 
to  him,  "Then  go  to  the  wall  as  your  Master  went  to  His 
cross.  You  can  not  do  otherwise  if  you  are  a  Christian." 
When  the  workingman  says,  as  one  said  to  me  once,  "If 
we  could  attain  to  the  living  standards  and  conditions  we 
are  seeking  in  our  labor  movement,  we  should  all  be 
honest  and  moral  and  you  preachers  would  be  without  a 
job.  But  in  the  conditions  that  surround  us,  you  can't  ex- 
pect anything  of  us  but  debauchery  and  drunkenness,  dis- 
honesty and  slackness  in  duty,"  it  is  our  business  to  say, 
"We  can  and  do  expect  better  things  of  you,  if  you  have 
the  grace  of  God  in  your  hearts.  You  can  if  you  will 
say  with  the  great  apostle,  T  can  do  all  things,  even 
conquer  my  circumstances,  through  Christ  who  strength- 
eneth  me  inwardly.  *  " 

But  on  the  other  hand  we  know  that  there  are  circum- 
stances and  conditions  especially  about  children  and  those 
adults  who  are  still  children  in  will  and  mind,  circum- 
stances and  conditions  in  which  it  is  almost  as  impossible 


The  Prophetic  Inheritance  65 

to  grow  a  decent,  not  to  say  a  Christian,  character  as 
it  would  be  to  grow  an  American  beauty  rose  in  the 
ash  can  at  your  back  door.  Then  it  is  our  duty  to  rise  up 
and  deal  with  that  environment.  It  is  our  business  to 
make  salvation  possible  and  then  appeal  to  the  will  and 
conscience  of  the  man,  to  make  it  actual.  Even  the  most 
confirmed  preachers  of  the  simple  or  individualistic  gospel 
were  fiercest  in  the  fight  for  prohibition,  because  they 
recognized  in  the  saloon  and  the  liquor  trade  a  source  of 
frightful  temptation  too  strong  for  the  weak  wills  of 
men.  Are  rank  injustices,  less  than  Hving  wages  and 
unspeakable  living  conditions  Hke  those  of  the  steel  indus- 
try against  which  the  workers  themselves  ro.se  lately  in 
mad  protest, — are  such  conditions  any  less  fatal  to  the 
possibility  of  decent,  not  to  say  Christian,  living  and 
homes  and  family  life  than  the  saloon?  If  so,  is  it  not 
equally  our  business  as  ministers  of  Christ  to  concern  our- 
selves about  the  industrial  problem  ?  In  fact,  the  common  1 
neglect  of  the  social  environment  by  preachers  of  the  j  ^ 
purely  individualistic  gospel  is  largely  responsible  for  the  '  Ai 
degradation  of  many  communities  as  well  as  the  wrecking  i 
of  multitudes  of  souls.  A  survey  of  certain  rural  portions  > 
of  Ohio  was  made  lately.  The  startling  discovery  was 
made  that  certain  over-churched  regions  showed  the 
worst  records  for  tuberculosis,  illiteracy  and  illegitimacy. 
They  were  swarming  with  travelling  evangelists  and  wan- 
dering revivalists.  They  were  burned  over  periodically 
with  protracted  meetings  and  religious  hysteria.  They 
had  plenty  of  ''soul-saving."  But  they  had  never  heard 
"the  gospel  of  the  kingdom."  They  had  no  wise  settled 
pastors  and  congregations  who  concerned  themselves 
about  wholesome  recreation  for  the  young,  just  industrial 
conditions  for  the  workers,  the  community  spirit,  the 
general  moral  and  Christian  tone  of  society. 

Yes,  the  gospel  has  a  dual  message,  to  the  individual 


66  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

and  to  society.  It  has  a  double  accent  and  emphasis.  It 
is  our  business  to  keep  those  accents  balanced  and  pro- 
portional. 

The  Bible  begins  with  the  story  of  a  solitary  man  in  a 
garden  face  to  face  with  God.  So  religion  begins  with 
the  life  of  God  in  the  individual  soul.  The  right  rela- 
tions between  that  soul  and  God  must  ever  be  the  primary 
concern  of  our  ministry. 

But  the  Bible  ends  with  the  vision  of  a  heavenly  city, 
a  celestial  civilization  descending  from  God  out  of  heaven 
to  take  possession  of  the  earth.  That  was  the  goal  of  the 
prophets  and  of  the  Christ.  That  is  the  end  and  issue 
of  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom.  Toward  that  vision  we 
must  ever  lift  the  eyes  of  our  people  and  urge  their 
steps. 


IV 
The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today 

WE  stand  in  the  prophetic  succession.  We  are 
called  to  be  "men  of  God,"  messengers  of  the 
Most  High,  interpreters  of  His  will,  ambassa- 
dors of  Jesus  Christ  and  His  kingdom,  and  God  will  so 
use  us,  if  we  fit  ourselves  for  His  use. 

We  are  heirs  of  the  prophets.  We  enter  into  the  heri- 
tage of  their  fundamental  and  persistent  message,  the 
social  applications  of  religion.  Jesus  Christ  did  not  cut 
off  the  entail  of  that  inheritance.  Rather  did  He  enlarge 
and  deepen  the  common  message  of  the  prophets  into  His 
full  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom.  The  question  that  confronts 
us  now  is:  What  is  the  prophetic  message  for  today? 
What  ought  to  be  the  special  emphases  and  objectives  of 
modern  prophetic  preaching?  What  should  be  its  domi- 
nant notes  ? 

If  ever  the  prophet  were  called  on  to  give  the  largest 
interpretations  of  the  will  of  God  and  make  the  widest 
applications  of  His  message,  it  is  today.  If  ever  the 
Christian  Church  were  challenged  to  recall  and  fulfill  in 
its  broadest  terms  her  original  Divine  commission,  which 
is  her  only  reason  for  existence,  viz.,  to  "disciple  the 
nations"  and  to  "save  the  world"  instead  of  merely  to 
disciple  individuals  among  the  nations  and  save  souls  out 
of  the  world, — it  is  today. 

Many  eyes  are  looking  to  her  and  her  gospel  as  the 
only  hope  in  the  midst  of  a  rocking  and  reeling  civiliza- 
tion, a  disillusioned,  despairing  and  all  but  ruined  world. 

Q 


68  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

"They  that  shall  be  of  thee  shall  build  the  old  waste 
places.  Thou  shalt  raise  up  the  foundations  of  many 
generations;  and  thou  shalt  be  called  the  repairer  of 
the  breach,  the  restorer  of  paths  to  dwell  in." 

Surely  that  is  the  paramount  mission  of  the  Christian 
Church  today.  Can  she  fulfill  that  mission?  That  is 
the  challenge  of  the  day  to  her.  To  meet  that  challenge 
is  the  supreme  task  to  which  you  and  all  the  prophets 
of  this  generation  must  address  yourselves. 

This  is  the  "age  of  reconstruction,"  we  say.  Now 
reconstruction  implies  previous  destruction.  And  surely 
that  destruction  is  apparent  enough.  It  is  practically 
universal.  The  international  order  lies  in  ruins.  The 
present  social  and  particularly  industrial  system  among 
all  peoples  is  shaken  with  a  common  and  mighty  discon- 
tent which  threatens  its  very  existence.  There  is  an  uni- 
versal upheaval  among  the  masses  of  the  proletariat,  the 
mud-sills  upon  which  our  civilization  is  built,  and  the 
whole  structure  trembles  and  totters. 

No  words  fit  the  present  situation  of  the  world  since 
the  great  war  like  those  terrible  denunciations  of  judg- 
ment which  fell  burning  from  the  lips  of  the  ancient 
Hebrew  prophets.  We  are  seeing  with  our  own  eyes  the 
lurid  pictures  of  a  Zephaniah  actualized.  We  are  hear- 
ing a  Jeremiah  crying,  'T  will  overturn  and  overturn  and 
overturn,  saith  the  Lord."  It  is  the  voice  from  heaven 
saying,  "Yet  once  more  I  shake  not  the  earth  only  but 
the  heavens  also,"  and  that  word,  "yet  once  more,"  signi- 
fieth  the  removing  of  the  things  that  are  shaken  as  of 
things  that  are  made,  that  the  things  which  can  not  be 
shaken  may  remain. 

It  is  a  day  of  the  Lord,  a  day  of  judgment,  a  coming 
of  the  Christ  to  test  and  to  prove. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  a  pre-millennial  craze  and  second 
adventist  madness  have  spread  like  an  epidemic  among 


The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today  69 

the  more  literally  minded  and  ignorant  masses  of  the 
Christian  church.  Only  they  are  looking  to  the  near 
future  for  what  is  about  them  in  the  actual  present.  This 
advent  has  arrived.  The  Lord  is  already  come  and  is 
seated  in  judgment  upon  our  v^hole  v^orld  order.  That 
order  is  palpably  condemned  and  doomed.  We  are  living 
in  one  of  those  supreme  crises  of  history  when  the  long, 
slow  processes  of  the  world's  life  focus  to  a  burning  point 
and  bring  on  their  own  judgment.  And  the  message  that 
ought  to  ring  in  the  ears  of  the  Christian  Church  today  is 
one  of  rebuke  and  exhortation.  "Why  stand  ye  gazing 
up  into  heaven"  in  supine,  idle  expectation  of  some  stu- 
pendous Divine  miracle  of  either  universal  destruction  or 
universal  restoration?  Turn  and  address  yourselves  with 
all  your  energies  to  your  God-appointed  task  of  rebuilding 
on  sure  foundations. 

Some  twelve  or  thirteen  years  ago  I  made  my  first  visit 
to  Winchester  Cathedral,  England.  Those  who  have  seen 
it  know  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  impressive  structures 
in  Great  Britain,  and  indeed  in  Europe.  Huge,  low-lying, 
massive,  it  looks  as  solid  and  enduring  as  the  everlasting 
hills  that  surround  it  on  every  side. 

But  just  before  my  visit,  ominous  cracks  and  fissures 
had  been  discovered  in  its  walls.  The  whole  structure 
was  threatened  with  imminent  collapse.  Expert  engi- 
neers and  architects  were  called  in  consultation.  The 
more  superficial  and  facile  recommended  certain  make- 
shifts only,  wise  and  necessary  to  meet  the  temporary 
emergencies — props  here  and  flying  buttresses  there  to 
shore  up  the  bulging  walls,  tie-rods  and  girders  to  bind 
them  together. 

But  fortunately  there  was  called  in  a  radical,  in  the 
best  sense  of  that  much  abused  word, — one  who  went  to 
the  root  of  things  and  whose  motto  was  "thorough."  He 
sank  deep  shafts  beside  the  walls,  down  beneath  the  low- 


70  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

est  strata  of  the  foundations.  And  he  found  that  the 
whole  cathedral  had  been  set  upon  an  underlying  bog, 
or  swamp.  The  early  builders  had  flung  trunks  and 
boughs  of  trees  into  this  morass  and  upon  these  confi- 
dently laid  their  foundations.  But  gradually  through  the 
centuries  the  waters  from  the  Surrounding  hills  had  seeped 
into  this  cup-like  valley  and  turned  the  swamp  into  a 
veritable  lake.  The  situation  demanded  radical  remedies. 
And  I  saw  men  in  deep  sea  diving  suits,  with  pumps  to 
furnish  them  air,  going  down  from  the  dry  land  into 
these  shafts  through  the  underlying  waters,  to  dig  down 
to  the  solid  clay  or  rock  beneath  the  foundations  and  put 
in  great  masses  of  concrete  as  sub-foundations ;  and  now 
the  great  structure  stands  solid  and  secure. 

It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  here  a  parable  of  our 
modern  civilization,  its  present  condition  and  its  supreme 
need, — a  need  which  only  religion,  in  the  fullest  sense  of 
the  word,  can  meet.  We  must  restore  the  moral  and 
spiritual  sub-foundations  of  human  society,  if  it  is  to 
stand  solid  and  secure. 

What  we  call  modern  civilization  is  almost  wholly  the 
creation  of  the  19th  century.  That  century  was  one  of 
the  great  epoch-making  centuries  of  history.  In  it  more 
discoveries  of  the  secrets  of  physical  nature,  her  vast 
hidden  and  mysterious  resources  and  forces,  were  made 
than  in  all  the  centuries  preceding  it.  It  has  to  its  credit 
more  inventions  whereby  those  forces  were  harnessed  to 
the  service  of  our  physical  life  and  material  well-being. 
Comforts,  conveniences  and  luxuries  were  multiplied  in- 
calculably for  such  as  had  the  means  to  command  them 
and  for  the  general  public  as  well.  Probably  more  mate- 
rial wealth  was  created  in  that  century  than  in  all  the 
ages  since  history  began.  Steam  and  electricity  alone 
utterly  transformed  the  face  of  human  society.  They 
turned  our  civilization  almost  wholly  into  an  industrial 


The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today  71 

civilization.  Everywhere  it  bears  the  industrial  mark.  It 
is  concerned  chiefly  with  the  making  of  things.  The 
multiplied  and  accelerated  means  of  transportation  stimu- 
lated trade  and  commerce  until  they  became  the  com- 
manding and  all-absorbing  interests  of  the  vast  majority 
of  able  and  ambitious  men. 

And  then  we  stood  off  and  admired  the  work  of  our 
hands.  We  gloried  in  it.  Undoubtedly  it  was  the  climax 
of  human  history,  the  crowning  achievement  of  human- 
ity,— ^this  splendid,  magnificent  civilization  of  ours. 
Greece  with  her  art,  literature  and  philosophy,  Rome  with 
her  laws  and  science  of  government,  ay,  Judea  with  her 
faith  and  her  God,  paled  into  insignificance  beside  this 
splendor  of  material  achievement.  It  looked  solid  and 
secure  for.  eternity.  No  doubts  ever  entered  our  heads  as 
to  its  possible  permanence.  If  anybody  presumed  to 
suggest  such  a  doubt,  we  shouted  him  down  as  did  the 
mob  at  Ephesus — "Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians." 
"Great  is  the  industrial  and  commercial  civilization  of  the 
19th  century."  It  was  our  Tower  of  Babel.  Its  top 
reached  to  the  heavens,  if  there  were  any  heavens. 

But  we  forgot  our  foundations — those  moral  and  spir- 
itual basic  principles  without  which  no  structure, 
whether  of  individual  life  and  character  or  of  a  world 
civilization,  can  stand  secure  and  solid.  We  were  so 
dazzled  by  the  sudden  and  overwhelming  influx  of  light 
on  things  seen  that  we  were  largely  blinded  to  the  things 
unseen  and  eternal.  We  were  so  absorbed  in  material 
values  that  we  lost  our  sense  of  moral  and  spiritual  values. 

Art  and  literature  waned.  Their  stock  was  low  in  the 
world's  market.  The  servants  of  the  idea  and  the  ideal, 
of  thought  and  of  beauty,  became  a  kind  of  third  estate 
in  modern  society.  Artists,  Hterary  "fellers,"  professors, 
were  sometimes  pityingly  patronized  but  generally  con- 
temptuously ignored  by  the  lords  of  industry  and  com- 


72  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

merce,  the  only  ''real  and  virile  men."  They  were  reck- 
oned as  parasites,  not  producers.  They  ornamented  the 
edifice  of  our  civilization  like  stucco  work.  They  con- 
tributed nothing  to  its  structure.  That  was  the  work  of 
the  men  who  dealt  with  things. 

Education,  once  the  high  priestess  of  culture,  to  a  con- 
siderable degree  sank  into  a  mere  hand-maid  to  industry, 
"a  hewer  of  wood  and  drawer  of  water."  We  banished 
the  humane  and  cultural  from  many  of  our  educational 
courses  and  institutions.  We  put  our  chief  emphasis 
upon  the  technical.  We  wanted  a  wholly  practical  train- 
ing for  our  boys  and  girls,  a  bread  and  butter  education, 
not  an  education  that  should  develop  their  tastes,  still 
less  one  that  should  discipline  and  form  their  characters, 
but  simply  one  that  should  turn  them  out  efficient  tools 
and  instruments  for  making  things,  producing  wealth. 
Efficiency,  not  culture  or  character,  was  the  paramount 
end  of  education, — craftsmen,  not  men,  its  output.  And 
as  for  religion,  it  fell  largely  into  "innocuous  desuetude." 
It  was  handed  over  for  the  most  part  to  women  and  chil- 
dren, or  those  spiritual  dillettantes, — mystics,  dreamers 
and  saints  who  revelled  in  pietistic  indulgences,  or  those 
fools  of  God, — the  servants  of  the  ideal  and  humanity. 
It  could  be  of  no  serious  concern  to  the  practical  man. 
He  dealt  with  realities — things.  He  had  no  time  for 
iridescent  dreams.  Visions  belonged  to  visionaries.  The 
"business  man"  was  king.  He  climbed  to  dominant  posi- 
tion throughout  the  whole  social  order.  We  all  stood 
in  awe  before  his  omniscience  and  his  unerring  judgment. 
He  told  us  all  where  to  "get  off"  and  we  meekly  got  off. 
The  commercial  conscience  was  supreme. 

The  church  was  given  its  charter  and  place.  It  was  to 
be  a  strictly  "limited  liability"  corporation.  The  sphere 
of  religion  was  carefully  and  exactly  delimited.  It  was 
to  have  nothing  whatsoever  to  do  with  politics,  industry 


The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today  7Z 

or  business.  These  were  foreign  realms  that  did  not  and 
could  not  acknowledge  the  sovereignty  of  the  Christ  and 
where  the  law  of  His  kingdom  could  not  run. 

Religion  was  to  deal  with  sentiments  and  emotions  and 
look  after  the  minor  moralities  of  strictly  personal  be- 
haviour and  conduct,  perhaps  also  the  home  and  family 
life  (as  if  these  could  be  isolated  from  the  common  life 
and  a  system  of  effective  quarantine  be  established 
against  the  contagion  of  an  evil  and  Godless  world  outside 
their  walls).  Especially  was  it  to  concern  itself  with 
charity,  alms-giving,  beneficence  and  rescue  and  relief 
work.  It  was  to  be  the  ambulance  and  hospital  corps 
that  should  take  care  of  the  victims  of  our  social  and 
industrial  system.  That  was  practical  religion.  Yes,  it 
should  run  ambulances  at  the  foot  of  the  cliff.  But  by 
no  means  should  it  attempt  to  set  watchmen  at  the  brink 
of  the  precipice  to  keep  any  from  falling  over.  It  was 
to  mop  up  the  floor  but  by  no  means  attempt  to  turn 
oflf  the  spigot.  It  was  to  deal  with  consequences  solely, 
not  seek  out  and  remedy  causes.  Individual  behaviour 
in  personal  relations,  charity,  alms  giving,  relief  and 
rescue — these  were  its  concern,  but  never  a  word  was  it 
to  utter  about  justice  and  righteousness  in  the  larger  rela- 
tions of  life,  least  of  all  about  a  possible  Kingdom  of  God, 
a  heavenly  civilization  on  earth.  Above  all  it  was  to  busy 
itself  with  "saving  souls." 

Said  the  practical  men  of  the  world  to  the  preachers  of 
religion:  "Keep  the  attention  of  the  masses  absorbed  in 
contemplation  of  the  world  to  come  and  they  won't  bother 
about  the  alleged  wrongs,  injustices  and  sufferings  of 
their  present  world.  Tell  them  everything  will  be  made 
up  to  them  in  heaven.  That  will  keep  them  quiet  and 
submissive.  Religion,  thus  administered,  is  an  excellent 
bromide  and  soporific.  It  may  prove  a  good  moral  police 
force.    It  is  the  bulwark  of  law  and  order.    You  run  the 


74  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

next  world  and  we  will  run  this.  You  look  after  men's 
souls  and  we  will  manage  everything  that  concerns  their 
bodies,  their  whole  life  here.  That's  a  fair  proposition. 
That  is  a  workable  partnership  with  a  due  division  of 
responsibiHty.  On  these  conditions  we  will  patronize  and 
support  the  church  liberally." 

Is  not  that  a  fair  picture  of  the  average  business  man's 
conception  of  the  place  and  function  of  religion  in  life? 
And  to  its  everlasting  shame  be  it  confessed,  the  Church 
for  the  most  part,  accepted  contentedly  that  arrangement 
and  entered  willingly  into  that  partnership,  the  official, 
ecclesiastical  church.  And  religion  decayed.  It  was  shorn 
of  its  power  and  dignity.  It  lost  respect.  It  fell  into 
contempt.  Multitudes  deserted  the  church  both  among 
the  masses  and  among  the  classes. 

It  was  not  the  rationalistic  philosophies  of  the  19th 
century  with  their  mechanistic  interpretations  of  life  and 
the  universe  that  most  deeply  and  surely  undermined 
Christian  faith.  Those  were  passing  phases  of  thought, 
already  obsolescent.  It  was  not  the  perpetual  warfare 
between  science  and  theology.  Above  all,  it  was  not  the 
new  science  of  Biblical  criticism.  That  has  proved  a 
servant  of  faith,  incalculably  enriching  her  treasure- 
house.  It  was  the  practical  materialism  of  the  age.  It 
was  the  dominant  commercial  conscience.  It  was  the 
business  man's  rule  with  his  business  standards  and  judg- 
ments. It  was  that  which  created  a  sordid,  mephitic 
atmosphere  in  which  the  soul  could  not  breathe.  Above 
all,  it  was  the  accumulating  horrors  of  human  misery, 
wrongs  and  injustice  that  grew  out  of  our  social  and 
industrial  system,  and  the  apparent  indifference  of  con- 
ventional religion  thereto,  which  made  multitudes  give 
up  their  faith  in  a  good  God,  a  God  who  cared, — ay,  in 
any  rationality  in  the  universe.     It  was  that  also  which 


The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today  7"^ 

made  it  a  desperate  struggle  for  all  who  felt  and  thought 
to  keep  their  grip  on  any  faith  in  a  Heavenly  Father. 

Meanwhile  if  religion  had  no  function  in  politics  or 
business,  if  moral  and  spiritual  values  could  not  be  quoted 
or  considered  in  the  commercial  market,  on  what  should 
we  build  our  social,  industrial  and  international  system? 
The  answer  came  swift  and  sure,  ''enlightened  self  inter- 
est." Into  the  morass  of  materialism  and  greed  which 
was  frankly  recognized  as  underlying  our  whole  civiliza- 
tion, industrial  and  international,  the  builders  of  our 
modern  society,  particularly  our  social  philosophers,  econ- 
omists and  statesmen,  flung  here  and  there  a  few  doc- 
trines and  considerations  of  "enlightened  self-interest" 
and  upon  these  they  laid  confidently  the  foundations  of 
the  whole  system.  Upon  such  grounds  they  rested  entirely 
their  hope  for  the  stability  of  the  whole  structure. 

For  example,  the  recognized  and  accepted  philosophy 
of  industry  was  frankly  and  unashamedly  selfish  and 
materialistic.  Only  selfish  and  materialistic  desires  could 
possibly  give  sufficient  motive  power  for  the  great  achieve- 
ments demanded  of  industry.  Altruistic  or  idealistic  mo- 
tives were  too  weak  to  be  trusted.  The  quest  of  beauty 
might  be  sufficient  to  inspire  the  artist  in  his  work,  the 
search  for  truth  the  scientist  and  philosopher,  the  service 
of  humanity  the  reformer,  teacher  and  physician,  and 
the  service  of  God  the  preacher.  But  to  try  to  run 
industry  and  production  with  such  motive  power  would 
be  like  hitching  your  factory  to  a  child's  paper  wind-wheel. 
No,  the  only  thing  that  would  keep  labor  up  to  its  maxi- 
mum of  efficiency  was  the  frantic  struggle  for  existence, 
to  keep  body  and  soul  together.  Industry  depends  upon 
the  margin  of  unemployment.  The  great  mass  of  the 
jobless,  who  struggle  on  the  crumbling  edge  of  starva- 
tion, is  its  reservoir  of  power.  It  is  the  fear  of  falling 
into  that  abyss  of  starvation  which  alone  will  inspire  the 


76  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

toiler  to  do  his  utmost,  and  upon  his  utmost  depends  the 
production  society  needs.  The  captain  of  industry  is  in 
business  solely  and  supremely  for  what  he  can  get  out  of 
it,  and  the  most  he  can  get  out  of  it,  for  himself,  profit 
and  power  and  the  zest  of  the  game.  Service  is  purely 
incidental — a  necessary  means  to  these  ends.  But  it  must 
be  kept  strictly  in  its  place  as  a  means.  It  must  never 
be  allowed  to  assume  the  place  of  the  supreme  and  para- 
mount end  as  it  does  with  the  idealist  in  the  professions. 
That  would  ruin  business.  "All  the  traffic  will  bear"  is 
good  business;  the  least  and  cheapest  service  for  the 
largest  returns  in  profits  and  dividends  is  the  only  rule 
of  success.  And  competition — competition  without  let  or 
hindrance  between  these  unbridled  greeds  is  the  only  life 
of  trade.  The  Manchester  school,  for  long  the  most 
potent  power  in  modern  economic  and  industrial  states- 
manship, proclaimed  the  doctrine  of  ''laissez  faire"! — ^"let 
alone" — "hands  off" — no  interference  in  business  by  gov- 
ernment, and,  of  course,  absolutely  none  by  religion. 
Moral  forces,  humane  considerations,  ethical  ends,  ay, 
human  wills  had  no  more  place  or  effect  in  the  operation 
of  the  laws  of  economics,  industry  or  trade  than  they  had 
in  the  operation  of  the  laws  of  gravity  or  chemical 
affinity. 

When  Lord  Shaftesbury  introduced  his  legislation  for 
regulating  factories  and  particularly  mines,  with  a  view 
to  introducing  some  elementary  principles  of  common 
humanity  into  industry,  particularly  to  prevent  the  exploit- 
ation of  women  and  children,  he  met  the  most  violent 
and  determined  opposition  among  the  most  enlightened 
and  intelligent  economists  and  statesmen  of  the  day,  and 
also  to  the  shame  of  religion  and  the  church,  be  it  con- 
fessed, from  almost  the  whole  bench  of  Bishops  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  And  all  legislation  for  industrial  re- 
form since,   from  the  simplest  requirements  of  safety 


The  Prophetic  ^Iessage  for  Today  17 

devices  for  the  protection  of  life  and  limb  up  to  the 
more  radical  enactments  that  aim  at  a  nearer  approach 
to  social  and  industrial  justice — all  have  met  the  same 
determined  opposition  from  the  same  sources.  **Let 
alone — hands  off."  Let  the  competition  of  individual 
greeds  and  selfish  motives  be  unrestrained.  Out  of  their 
clash  will  develop  some  rude  and  tolerable  form  of  jus- 
tice, and  it  is  the  only  justice  attainable  or  practicable  in 
the  social  or  industrial  realms.  Any  other  line  of  action 
will  turn  out  to  be  an  impertinent  and  disastrous  inter- 
ference with  a  most  delicate  and  complicated  mechanism. 
We  must  rely  solely  on  enlightened  self-interest.  The 
employer  must  estabHsh  reasonably  tolerable  conditions, 
hours  and  rates  of  wages  or  he  will  not  secure  loyal  and 
efficient  labor.  The  laborer  must  give  reasonable  return 
in  service  or  he  can  not  keep  his  job.  The  profiteering 
merchant  can  not  long  fleece  the  public  without  losing  his 
trade. 

"Let  alone — hands  off"  and  the  sacred,  omnipotent, 
all-pervasive  law  of  supply  and  demand  will  bring  all 
these  individual  greeds  to  a  common  basis  and  order 
of  enlightened  self-interest. 

Was  not  that  the  accepted  and  unquestioned  industrial 
philosophy  of  the  19th  century? 

It  was  likewise  its  accepted  and  unquestioned  interna- 
tional philosophy. 

The  chief  function  of  the  state  was  to  protect,  develop 
and  foster  the  industrial  and  commercial  prosperity  of 
its  citizens,  incidentally  and  secondarily  to  secure  justice 
and  develop  art,  culture,  education  and  religion.  Most 
of  its  foreign  diplomacy  served  one  end  chiefly, — to  secure 
sources  for  the  raw  materials  required  by  industry,  mar- 
kets for  its  finished  products,  colonies  to  furnish  both, 
and  favorable  trade  relations  with  other  nations — "a 
place  in  the  sun" — if  not  commercial  domination  through- 


78  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

out  the  world.  To  this  end  statecraft  was  dedicated  and 
for  this  purpose  large  armaments  and  armies  and  navies 
were  created.  Ninety-three  cents  out  of  every  dollar  of 
taxes  in  enlightened  America  goes  to  pay  for  wars,  past 
and  future, — only  seven  cents  for  all  the  other  purposes 
of  government.  If  a  few  sensitive  seers  here  and  there 
trembled  with  apprehension  at  the  rapid  intensification 
and  growth  of  these  insatiable  material  and  commercial 
greeds  and  the  enormous  piling  up  of  armaments,  and 
saw  ominous  visions  of  the  inevitable  world  crash  and 
the  possible  fall  of  civilization  itself,  they  were  promptly 
reassured  or  at  least  gagged  with  this  blessed  doctrine 
of  enlightened  self-interest.  It  was  also  an  effective 
soporific  for  the  multitude  and  "a  sure  refuge  and  hope" 
to  the  leaders  in  the  political  and  commercial  game.  It 
was  our  only  but  our  impregnable  security.  With  war 
made  so  terrible  and  destructive  by  modern  equipment 
and  methods,  no  nation  would  dare  lightly  or  wantonly 
to  start  a  conflict.  Enlightened  self-interest  would 
restrain  it. 

Above  all,  with  a  world-wide  international  trade  and 
finance  established,  depending  on  delicately  poised  and 
balanced  and  closely  interwoven  material  interests  among 
the  business  men  and  corporations  of  all  nations,  of  course 
war  became  more  and  more  impossible.  No  war  lords 
would  dare  disturb  that  sensitive  commercial  system.  So 
we  all  shouted,  ''Great  is  the  power  of  enlightened  self- 
interest,"  and  settled  down  in  our  fools'  paradise. 

But  even  under  the  ordinary  strains  and  stresses  of 
peace,  cracks  and  fissures  began  to  appear  in  the  walls  of 
our  splendid  structure,  that  industrial  system  and  world 
order  which  constituted  our  boasted  massive  and  magnifi- 
cent modern  civilization. 

There  were  the  accumulating  horrors  involved  in  the 
very  nature  of  our  industrial  system.     There  was  the 


■    The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today  79 

exploitation  of  women  and  children  to  get  the  cheap 
labor  necessary  to  large  profits  and  dividends,  undermin- 
ing the  motherhood  and  the  home  life  of  the  race  and 
imperilling  its  future.  There  were  the  intolerable  condi- 
tions of  factories,  unsanitary  surroundings,  unguarded 
machinery,  dangerous  and  disease-breeding  occupations 
which  jeopardized  the  health  of  whole  communities  and 
even  peoples.  The  stunted,  anaemic,  mentally  and  mor- 
ally undeveloped  masses  produced  inevitably  by  our  in- 
dustrial system  were  startlingly  disclosed  by  the  examina- 
tions imposed  by  draft  laws  among  all  the  warring  nations. 
At  first  the  majority  had  to  be  rejected  as  unfit  for  service 
until  our  necessities  compelled  us  to  take  any  material, 
however  far  below  the  standards.  There  was  the  unen- 
durably  long  confinement,  the  perilous  and  exhausting 
employment,  such  as  the  twelve-hour  day  and  seven-day 
week,  with  weekly  or  bi-weekly  shifts  of  twenty-four  to 
thirty-six  hours,  which  still  confessedly  prevail  in  our 
leading  American  industry,  a  system  which  can  only 
brutalize  and  bestialize  men,  if  it  does  not  madden  them 
or  kill  them  outright.  There  was  the  growth  of  the 
modern  slum,  both  in  cities  and  in  rural  districts  about 
mines  and  mills,  such  as  the  forty  miles  of  hovels  about 
Pittsburgh  revealed  in  the  survey  of  a  few  years  ago. 
Here  are  inevitably  bred  the  hordes  of  savages  and  bar- 
barians who  must,  unless  remedy  be  found,  foment  the 
revolutions  that  shall  destroy  our  civilization.  There  was 
the  iron  law  of  wages  which  tended  steadily  to  reduce 
the  standard  of  living  below  a  decent  animal  existence, 
the  overplus  allowed  ruthlessly  to  perish  or  become  a 
charge  upon  public  charity.  Business  itself  lives  on 
charity  in  all  periods  of  unemployment.  Labor  become 
a  commodity,  not  a  great  group  of  living  sentient  human 
beings  with  rights  and  claims,  aspirations  and  ambitions, 
"men  who  loved  and  hated  and  had  children,"  but  simply 


80  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

a  mass  of  the  raw  material  of  industry  like  cotton  or  pig 
iron,  to  be  bought  in  the  cheapest  market,  used  up  in 
the  processes  of  manufacture  and  the  remnants  thrown 
carelessly  into  the  scrap-heap.  Humanity  was  dehu- 
manized. 

Even  the  sacred  law  of  supply  and  demand  did  not 
operate,  as  it  was  confidently  declared  it  would,  to  produce 
a  rude  justice  out  of  the  clash  of  conflicting  selfish  inter- 
ests. The  rudeness  was  palpable  and  apparent  enough, 
but  the  justice  was  invisible,  if  not  non-existent.  Artifi- 
cially manipulated  by  the  combinations  and  devices  of 
both  the  active  participants  in  the  conflict,  capital  and 
labor,  that  law  of  supply  and  demand  became  a  highway- 
man's club  or  pistol,  used  to  rob  each  other  and  especially 
the  public.  Generally  it  was  held  in  the  hands  of  the 
powerful  and  privileged  and  employed  to  beat  down  the 
helpless  mass  of  labor  into  abject  submission  to  the 
demands  of  capital  and  extort  from  the  innocent  public 
"all  the  traffic  will  bear."  Or  again,  in  the  hands  of 
strong  combinations  of  labor  and  especially  in  periods  of 
scarcity  in  the  labor  market,  as  during  the  war,  it  was 
used  equally  ruthlessly  by  labor  to  extort  from  capital 
and  through  capital  from  the  public  behind  it,  all  the 
wages  that  could  be  squeezed  out  with  the  least  possible 
production  and  most  inefficient  service  rendered  in  return. 
In  both  instances  the  innocent  by-stander,  the  public,  suf- 
fered most  as  the  victim  of  the  profiteers  of  both  sides, 
and  the  machinery  of  industry  was  well  nigh  wrecked. 

Above  all,  the  contrasts  between  unearned  wealth  and 
unearned  poverty  grew  constantly  deeper  and  more  glar- 
ing. Wealth,  wanton  and  ostentatious,  rotted  the  souls 
of  its  possessors,  and  poverty,  helpless  and  despairing, 
either  left  its  victims  sodden  and  hopeless  or  drove  them 
to  the  madness  of  violence  and  anarchy.  The  scum, 
sometimes  called  the  "cream"  of  society,  and  its  dregs, 


The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today  81 

are  much  alike  in  their  characteristic  sins.  In  both  ahke 
the  moral  fibre,  the  very  m'oral  constitution  of  society,  was 
attacked. 

Such  is  the  plain  record  of  the  19th  century  industrial 
system  as  he  who  runs  may  read  it.  The  facts  and 
statistics  are  overwhelming.  "Enlightened  self-interest" 
evidently  was  not  working  as  efficiently  as  its  advocates 
confidently  asserted  it  would. 

So  it  was  also  with  our  world  order.  There  was  the 
balance  of  power,  weighted  and  counter-weighted  with 
enormous  armaments,  as  deHcate  as  a  pair  of  chemical 
balances  to  be  kept  under  a  glass  case,  yet  exposed  in  the 
open  to  the  blasts  of  furious  unrestrained  racial  hatreds 
and  ambitions  and  national  commercial  greeds  and  rival- 
ries. At  every  recurrent  crisis  nervous  and  distracted 
diplomatists  flew  hither  and  thither  to  conferences  to 
adjust  the  balance,  compromise  the  differences,  and  apply 
the  infallible  remedy,  "enlightened  self-interest." 

But  the  international  situation  grew  steadily  more 
ominous  and  threatening.  Christian  seers  and  prophets 
here  and  there  discerned  the  signs  of  the  times  and  pro- 
claimed them.  But  they  were  unheeded.  It  was  Fred- 
erick William  Robertson  who  in  the  early  fifties,  when  the 
doctrine  of  enlightened  self-interest  in  international  trade 
and  finance  was  first  set  forth  as  the  insurance  and  secur- 
ity of  world  peace, — it  was  then  that  this  Christian 
preacher  proclaimed  with  all  the  assurance  of  a  Hebrew 
prophet,  "We  are  told  that  what  chivalry  and  honor  could 
not  do,  personal  interest,  enlightened  self-interest,  will  do. 
Trade  is  to  bind  men  into  one  family.  When  they  feel  it 
their  interest  to  be  one,  they  will  be  brothers."  Then  he 
prophesied,  "Brethren,  that  which  is  built  on  selfishness 
cannot  stand.  The  system  of  personal  self-interest  must 
be  shivered  into  atoms.  Therefore  we  who  have  observed 
the  ways  of  God  in  the  past  are  waiting  in  quiet  but  awful 


82  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

expectation  until  He  shall  confound  this  system  as  He 
has  confounded  those  which  have  gone  before.  And  it 
may  be  effected  by  convulsions  more  terrible  and  more 
bloody  than  the  world  has  yet  seen.  While  men  are  talk- 
ing of  peace  and  the  great  progress  of  civilization,  there 
is  heard  in  the  distance  the  noise  of  armies  gathering 
rank  upon  rank,  east  and  west,  north  and  south,  and 
rolling  towards  us  the  crashing  thunders  of  universal 
war."  There  was  the  prophetic  message  for  the  day. 
But,  as  I  have  said,  it  was  unheeded. 

The  cheerful  optimists  of  the  day  daubed  up  the  widen- 
ing cracks  in  our  heathen  industrial  system  and  pagan 
world  order  with  their  untempered  mortar  of  "enlight- 
ened self-interest."  Others,  less  superficial,  went  a  bit 
deeper.  They  put  in  tie-rods,  girders  and  set  up  props 
and  shores  and  flying  buttresses.  For  industrial,  social 
and  economic  legislation  came  into  vogue  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  19th  century  and  the  first  part  of  the  20th. 
Statutes  were  passed  for  the  regulation  of  child  labor 
and  woman  labor,  of  factory  conditions,  safety  appli- 
ances, the  prevention  of  occupational  diseases,  old  age 
and  unemployment  insurance.  Even  minimum  wage  laws 
were  proposed.  And  individual  corporations  here  and 
there  ventured  on  experiments  of  welfare  work  and  even 
of  profit-sharing  and  industrial  democracy.  In  the  inter- 
national sphere  Hague  tribunals  were  instituted;  the 
Peace  Palace  set  up,  disarmament  proposals  were  made, 
"scraps  of  paper"  innumerable  were  plastered  over  the 
widening  breaches  of  international  commercial  rivalries. 
That  is,  the  old  doctrine  of  "laissez  faire,  hands  off — let 
alone"  was  definitely  ab^indoned  and  specific  steps  were 
taken  towards  legislative  interference  with  both  business 
and  international  policies.  For  it  had  grown  evident 
even  to  the  blindest  that  unless  something  were  done  the 
structure  of  civilization  could  not  stand.    But  few  thought 


The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today  83 

of  looking  to  the  foundations  of  the  whole  world  order. 
For  the  most  part  in  all  our  legislation  we  tinkered  with 
the  superstructure.  Only  here  and  there,  in  some  isolated 
Christian  pulpit,  did  the  voice  of  some  lonely  prophet 
and  seer  give  such  radical  warning  and  counsel  as  Robert- 
son gave.  But  that  voice  was  either  contemptuously 
ignored,  or,  if  possible,  rudely  stopped.  It  was  only  a 
simple-minded  preacher — a  bit  touched  in  his  brains — out 
of  his  sphere,  impertinently  meddling  with  business  and 
politics. 

And  then  suddenly,  in  a  moment,  broke  the  great  world 
storm,  long  brewing  in  the  very  heart  of  our  civilization, 
but  which  only  a  few  seers  had  discerned.  It  took  the 
rest  of  the  world  with  utter  surprise.  The  rains 
descended  and  the  floods  arose  and  the  winds  blew  and 
beat  upon  the  house  we  had  builded  on  the  sands  of 
materialism  and  "enlightened  selfishness"  and  it  tottered 
to  a  fall.  The  Lord  came  in  judgment  and  uttered  in 
tones  of  thunder,  from  the  east  even  unto  the  west.  His 
sentence  of  condemnation  upon  our  whole  civilization  of 
splendid  greed  and  power,  our  industrial  system,  our 
commerce,  our  trade,  our  world  order. 

Today  the  whole  system  of  international  relations  lies 
in  ruin,  and  the  industrial  order  in  every  land  is  rocking 
and  reeling  under  the  sudden  letting  loose  of  the  long 
suppressed  discontent  and  wrath  of  the  suffering  masses. 

Is  not  the  world  situation  today  an  imperative  challenge 
to  the  Christian  church,  if  she  has  a  prophetic  ministry? 
Others  may  offer  devices  of  social  reform  like  industrial 
democracy,  or  international  organization  such  as  the 
League  of  Nations,  to  shore  up  and  bind  together  our 
tottering  civilization.  Wise  and  necessary  such  devices 
may  be.  But  it  is  the  church's  business  to  be  radical  and 
go  to  the  roots  of  things,  to  proclaim  the  principles  upon 
which  alone  civilization  can  stand   secure,   the  motives 


84  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

which  alone  can  make  such  devices  effective,  the  atmos- 
phere in  which  only  they  can  function.  Is  it  not  time  for 
the  Christian  church  to  rise  up  at  once  in  bitter  penitence 
for  her  own  past  neglect  and  in  righteous  wrath  at  her 
contemptuous  exclusion  and  repression  by  the  "wise  men" 
of  this  world,  and  say  unto  them :  'T  will  break  the  evil 
compact  to  which  I  have  passively  consented  and  I  will 
break  my  own  cowardly  silence.  I  have  let  you  run  this 
world  after  your  selfish  heathen  philosophies  and  systems 
until  you  have  run  it  to  ruin.  I  will  now  deliver  the 
burden  the  Lord  hath  laid  upon  me — His  word  that  burns 
like  fire  in  my  bones — 'Look  to  your  foundations,  for 
other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  even 
Jesus  Christ.'  He  that  buildeth  on  any  other  ground,  his 
house  shall  fall,  as  God  hath  proved  to  you  in  such  a 
drama  of  judgment  as  history  can  not  parallel.  Unless 
you  Christianize  your  industrial  system,  it  can  not  last. 
Unless  you  Christianize  your  world  order  it  cannot 
endure." 

Is  not  that  the  prophetic  message  for  today? 

Even  men  of  the  world  are  beginning  to  listen  for  it 
and  demand  it.  The  most  noted  financial  expert  and  statis- 
tician of  the  day  says:  "The  whole  business  and  indus- 
trial situation  today  depends  fundamentally  on  right  mo- 
tives and  the  Church  is  the  only  institution  for  generating 
right  motives.  Therefore,  let  every  business  man  get 
behind  the  church  and  strengthen  it.  It  is  our  only  hope." 
Herbert  Hoover  says:  "Nothing  less  than  a  spiritual 
revival  can  save  the  industrial  situation."  Perhaps  the 
vision  that  inspires  these  utterances  is  superficial.  Per- 
haps they  are  spoken  more  in  the  fear  of  the  things 
that  are  coming  on  the  earth  than  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord.  Perhaps  the  Church  and  her  religion  are  still 
regarded  chiefly  as  a  bulwark  of  conservatism,  a  sup- 
porter  of   existing  law   and  order,   to   keep   secure  the 


The  Prophetic  Message  for  Today  85 

sacrosanct  system  of  things  as  they  are,  rather  than  as  "a 
repairer  of  the  breaches  and  a  restorer  of  foundations." 
Still  there  is  a  groping  after  the  reality. 

And,  thank  God,  there  are  signs  of  the  Church's  awak- 
ening to  the  vision  and  answering  the  challenge  the  times 
set  before  her.  The  lonely  voices  of  the  isolated  seers 
of  the  past  are  being  combined  into  choruses  of  official 
utterances  on  the  application  of  Christian  principles  to 
the  industrial  world  order.  By  way  of  evidence,  read 
for  instance  (for  I  mention  them  almost  at  random)  the 
findings  of  the  Commission  on  the  Industrial  Situation, 
appointed  by  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  and  York, 
the  reports  of  the  Lambeth  Conference  on  Christianity 
and  Industrial  Problems  and  Christianity  and  Interna- 
tionality  Relations,  the  declarations  of  the  War  Council 
of  Roman  Catholic  Bishops,  and  its  social  welfare  com- 
mission, the  social  platform  of  Canadian  Wesleyans  and 
the  Canadian  Presbyterian  General  Assembly,  the  social 
creed  of  the  Federated  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ, 
the  report  of  the  Commission  of  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement  appointed  to  investigate  the  late  steel  strike, 
etc.  The  volume  of  the  great  chorus  is  constantly  in- 
creasing. Watch  the  movements  for  giving  our  divided 
Christendom  a  common  voice,  that  the  united  Church 
may  utter  her  common  mind  and  deliver  a  whole  gospel 
to  a  whole  world. 

The  war  revealed  the  ultimate  disaster  and  futility  of 
our  disunion.  Established  churches  were  carried  along 
like  barnacles  on  the  ship  of  state  and  free  churches  in 
their  petty  denominationalisms  were  swept  like  chips  in 
her  wake  of  narrow,  selfish  patriotisms.  The  only  Chris- 
tian body  that  had  any  international  organization  was  the 
Roman  Communion,  which  proved  itself  utterly  without 
either  moral  courage  or  leadership  under  the  great  test. 

New  world  alliances  for  international  friendship,  world 


86  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

federation  and  world  conferences  on  unity  and  other 
like  movements  are  preparing  the  Church  to  focus  her 
scattered  moral  forces  upon  a  wrecked  industrial  system 
and  a  shattered  world  order,  that,  lifted  above  the  absorp- 
tions of  both  narrow  nationalisms  and  petty  denomina- 
tionalisms,  she  may  proclaim  with  the  authority  of  a 
united  voice  the  whole  gospel  and  the  whole  prophetic 
message  of  Jesus  Christ  to  a  whole  but  distracted  world. 

It  is  in  such  a  day  you  come  to  your  prophetic  min- 
istry. May  you  not  only  preach  boldly  your  own  individ- 
ual prophetic  message  for  this  day  of  crisis  as  the  Lord 
shall  lay  His  burden  upon  you  and  put  His  word  into 
your  heart,  but  may  you  help  still  further  to  sensitize  this 
awakening  social  conscience  of  the  official  church.  And 
may  you  add  your  full  measure  of  influence  and  impulse 
to  these  great  movements  for  the  unification  of  her  world- 
wide power  and  gospel,  that  she  may  fulfill  her  Divine 
commission  as  the  Repairer  of  the  Breaches  and  the  Re- 
storer of  the  Foundations  of  our  shattered  and  imperilled 
civilization. 

It  may  seem  an  impossible  task  for  a  feeble  church 
"scattered  and  peeled,"  despised  and  condemned.  But  let 
us  rest  on  His  promise  who  said,  "Fear  not,  little  flock, 
for  it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the 
Kingdom." 


V 

The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today 
A  more  christian  civilization 

THE  prophetic  message  for  this  day  of  recon- 
struction, we  have  seen,  is  a  persistent  and  in- 
sistent proclamation  of  those  fundamental 
moral  and  spiritual  principles  which  have  been  so  com- 
monly forgotten  and  neglected  in  the  materialistic 
absorptions  of  our  modern  civilization,  but  upon  which 
alone  any  order  of  life,  individual,  industrial,  social, 
national  or  international,  can  endure  the  tests  of  the 
constantly  recurrent  judgments  of  experience  and  his- 
tory. So  only  can  the  church  by  her  prophetic  minis- 
try fulfill  her  mission  "to  raise  up  the  foundations  of 
many  generations."  Her  task  is  to  build  upon  these 
foundations  a  more  Christian  civilization — a  more 
Christian  "kultur" — to  use  the  term  Germany  has 
worn  trite  and  made  opprobrious ;  and  that  means  a 
more  Christian  industrial,  social,  national  and  inter- 
national order. 

That  at  once  raises  a  question.  Is  not  our  present 
civilization  a  Christian  civilization.  We  have  long 
and  commonly  called  it  is  so.  And  when  the  great  disaster 
befell,  many  were  the  clamant  voices  of  the  critics 
who  proclaimed  that  Christian  civilization  had  broken 
down,  and  therefore  Christianity  had  failed.  A  suffici- 
ent answer  was  given  in  the  pungent  reply  of  Ches- 
terton,  "Christianity   has   not   been   tried   and   found 

^7. 


88  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

wanting.  It  has  been  found  difficult  and  not  tried." 
Yes,  we  can  defend  Christianity  against  that  accusa- 
tion of  failure.  But  we  can  not  defend  the  Christian 
Church  and  her  prophetic  ministry.  The  Church  did 
fail  and  her  failure  was  colossal  and  fatal. 

And  she  failed  for  two  reasons, — first,  for  lack  of 
vision.  She  did  not  discern  her  full  mission,  the  full 
reach  and  application  of  her  gospel.  She  was  intent 
only  on  "saving  souls"  and  making  saints  here  and 
there.  She  had  not  attempted  to  "disciple  the  nations" 
and  "save  the  world,"  that  is,  to  make  civilization 
Christian. 

And  second,  because  of  her  unhappy  divisions.  A 
church,  broken  into  fragments  by  national  and  denom- 
inational divisions,  could  not  deliver  a  whole  gospel 
or  apply  the  principles  of  that  gospel  with  an  author- 
ity and  power  which  should  command  attention  or 
even  respect. 

Consequently  our  civilization,  like  Daniel's  image, 
rests  on  feet  "part  clay  and  part  iron";  it  is  partly 
Christian  and  partly  frankly  pagan.  As  such  it  is 
bound  to  crumble.  Our  task  is  to  make  a  partly  Chris- 
tian civilization  more  Christian. 

There  stand  in  the  face  of  this  task  three  "impossi- 
blists,"  to  coin  a  word  which  must  carry  its  plain  mean- 
ing. One  is  the  blind  individualist,  the  conventional 
Christian,  who  does  not  see  the  task  at  all.  Another 
is  the  pessimist  who  resorts,  as  pessimists  always  do, 
to  the  apocalyptic  and  eschatological.  He  is  the  second 
adventist  or  the  premillenarian.  He  faces  the  task  and 
gives  it  up.  It  is  hopeless  to  human  vision  and  by  any 
human  means.  Even  human  co-operation  is  useless. 
Only  a  miracle  of  Divine  intervention  can  accomplish 
anything.  The  Lord  must  come  Himself  with  His 
attendant  angels  to  destroy  utterly  this  present  hope- 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  89 

lessly  rotten  world  order  and  establish  *'a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness." 
All  we  can  do  is  to  wait,  with  eyes  upon  the  skies,  for 
His  coming. 

The  third  "impossiblist"  is  the  impracticable  ideal- 
ist, the  visionary,  the  man  with  a  panacea,  who  has  his 
own  plan  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  the  celestial  civili- 
zation, with  complete  specifications  down  to  the  last 
gold  brick  in  the  pavements  thereof.  He  keeps  his 
eyes  fixed  on  that  far  goal,  that  perfect  ideal,  and  sees 
nothing  between.  He  expects  to  attain  it  somehow 
by  a  "tour  de  force,"  a  human  miracle,  an  immediate 
leap  or  flight.  He  will  consider  or  take  none  of  the 
practical  steps  on  the  long  path  that  reaches  from  our 
present  position  to  that  perfect  state. 

Now  the  idealist  is  indispensable.  For  the  ideal  is 
the  light  of  all  our  seeing.  It  illumines  the  path  by 
which  we  must  proceed  and  progress.  Unless  we  have 
some  dim  vision  at  least  of  our  goal,  we  shall  never 
arrive  anywhere.  Jesus  dealt  preeminently  in  ideals. 
He  was  always  giving  "counsels  of  perfection."  But 
we  must  be  practical  idealists  as  He  ever  was.  The 
skilful  pilot  knows  his  port,  "the  haven  where  he 
would  be."  But  he  tacks  this  way  and  that,  following 
the  windings  of  the  only  possible  channel  and  making 
use  of  every  wind  and  current  which  will  carry  him 
towards  his  final  goal.  So  Lincoln  wrought.  To 
change  the  figure,  the  engineer  of  Christian  reconstruc- 
tion must  work  as  the  construction  engineer  of  the 
railroad  who  rebuilds  a  condemned  bridge,  piece  by 
piece,  without  interrupting  traffic  or,  if  possible,  delay- 
ing a  single  train ;  or  as  the  architect  at  Winchester 
who  did  not  dem'olish  and  rebuild  de  novo,  but  set 
his  new  foundations  under  the  walls  of  the  existing 
structure.    For  we  must  advance  by  evolution  and  not 


90  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

by  revolution.  The  immediate  question  for  us  is, 
as  Dr.  Coffin  has  put  it,  "not  what  can  be  achieved  in 
the  centuries  or  the  millennium  that  lies  before  us,  but 
what  can  be  practically  accomplished  in  the  next  five 
or  fifty  years  of  our  own  ministry."  I  have  therefore 
phrased  our  prophetic  task  not  as  "the  Christianizing 
of  our  civilization,"  its  complete  and  ideal  conforma- 
tion to  Christ's  vision  of  a  Kingdom  of  heaven  on 
earth, — that  is  the  ultimate  goal — ^but  a  more  Christian 
civilization,  a  civilization  in  certain  immediate  aspects 
and  along  certain  practicable  lines  more  closely  ap- 
proximated to  that  ideal. 

What  is  the  present  practical  and  concrete  program 
that  lies  immediately  before  us? 

There  are  two  outstanding  problems  which  challenge 
our  civilization  in  this  day  of  reconstruction.  They 
challenge  also  the  Christian  church  for  the  interpreta- 
tion and  application  of  her  gospel  thereto.  One  is 
the  creation  of  a  new  international  order  which  shall 
secure,  or  at  least  make  more  possible,  permanent 
peace  between  the  peoples  of  the  earth ;  and  the  other  is 
the  creation  of  a  new  industrial  order  which  shall  end  or  at 
least  mitigate  the  perpetual  conflict  and  strife  from  which 
labor,  capital,  and  the  public,  most  of  all,  sufifer  today. 

Let  me  illustrate  my  theme  by  some  practical  appli- 
cations to  these  two  challenging  opportunities. 

Universal  peace — it  has  been  the  dream  of  the 
prophets.  The  vision  is  spread  fair  upon  the  pages 
of  Isaiah  and  Micah.  It  is  the  ideal  and  goal  of  the 
Christian  religion. 

And  the  nearest  approach  towards  that  goal  and 
ideal  ever  made  in  the  realm  of  practical  statesmanship 
is  without  doubt  the  proposition  to  establish  a  league 
of  nations.  It  has  been  so  recognized  by  the  Christian 
church  throughout  the  world  today.     By  official  utter- 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  91 

ances  nearly  every  branch  of  that  church  has  set  its 
seal  of  enthusiastic  approval  upon  the  plan. 

Already  the  league  has  been  set  up,  has  been  func- 
tioning successfully  in  many  fields  for  the  reparation 
of  the  havoc  made  by  war,  shows  signs  of  growing 
vitality,  potency  and  permanence  and  gives  promise 
of  increasing  efficiency.  The  large  majority  of  the 
civilized  nations  of  the  earth  have  accepted  member- 
ship in  it.  Only  Germany,  Russia,  Turkey  and  the 
United  States  are  outside — a  sorry  company  for  us  to 
be  in.  The  league  cannot  be  a  full  success  until  we 
take  our  due  place  in  it,  and  I  believe  we  shall,  as 
soon  as  time  has  cooled  down  our  partisan  passions, 
our  personal  jealousies  and  hatreds,  and  when  also 
we  have  recovered  from  our  present  slump  of  reaction, 
with  its  narrow  selfish  nationalism,  with  its  Prussian 
slogan,  "America  first,"  '*Amerika  uber  alles,"  and  have 
regained  our  characteristic  and  natural  national  ideal- 
ism. Doubtless  the  present  league  is  very  imperfect — 
all  things  human  are.  But  it  is  capable  of  amendment 
as  all  things  human  are. 

What  are  the  duty  and  mission  of  the  Christian 
church  and  her  prophetic  ministry  in  the  presence  of 
this  challenging  opportunity?  It  is  not  our  function 
to  advise  or  counsel  concerning  the  constitution  or 
mechanism  of  the  league.  That  is  the  business  of  ex- 
perts. But  I  believe  it  is  our  duty,  with  all  the  force 
we  can  summon  to  advocate  and  urge  in  our  pulpits 
and  out  of  them  the  principle  of  the  league,  its  estab- 
lishment and  the  entry  of  our  own  nation  into  it  at 
the  earliest  possible  opportunity.  For  this  is  a  matter 
which  rises  far  above  the  plane  of  petty  party  politics 
into  the  realm  of  the  Christian  ideal.  It  is  our  mis- 
sion also  to  inculcate  and  establish  so  far  as  we  can 
those  fundamental  moral,  spiritual  and  Christian  prin- 


92  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

ciples  upon  which  alone  such  a  league  can  stand 
secure,  and  to  create  the  moral  and  spiritual  atmos- 
phere in  which  alone  it  can  function. 

For  the  league  is  but  an  instrument,  a  machine.  But 
who  are  to  wield  that  instrument  and  run  that  ma- 
chine? If  the  familiar  brand  of  European  diplomatists 
with  their  selfish  commercialistic  national  ambitions, 
their  tricky  policies  and  secret  treaties,  or  if  the  equally 
familiar  breed  of  American  politicians,  God  save  us, 
for  only  He  can,  league  or  no  league. 

The  success  of  the  league  depends  upon  statesmen  of 
vision  and  of  the  largest  good  will  who  will  instinc- 
tively and  habitually  put  the  well-being  of  the  world 
above  narrow  and  selfish  nationalism, — in  a  word. 
Christian  statesmen — and  only  religion  can  produce 
such  statesmen,  and  only  religion  can  create  such  a 
public  opinion,  establish  such  political  standards  and 
sensitize  such  a  public  conscience  as  shall  demand  such 
statesmen  for  such  tasks. 

Again, — we  are  living  in  the  poisonous  aftermath  of 
the  war  and  still  breathing  its  atmosphere  of  hatred. 
There  is  the  hatred  of  vengeance  and  fear  like  that  of 
France,  the  most  pitiable  and  forgivable  of  all.  But 
there  is  still  a  remnant  of  what  might  be  called  con- 
scientious hatred,  religiously  cherished  by  many  leist 
they  lose  the  capacity  for  righteous  indignation — 
*'lest  we  forget." 

Surely  it  is  the  duty,  the  privilege  and  the  opportun- 
ity of  the  Christian  church  in  all  lands  persistently 
and  insistently,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  to  preach 
down  hatred  and  to  preach  up  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  forgiveness  and  reconciliation.  The  late  Lambeth 
Conference  set  a  notable  and  practical  example  in  this 
direction  by  unanimously  pleading  for  the  admission 
of  Germany  to  the  league  at  the  earliest  possible  opportun- 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  93 

ky.     No  league,  however  perfect,  can  function  at  all  in 
an  atmosphere  of  hatred. 

And  again  it  is  peculiarly  the  function  of  the  Church 
to  preach  a  true,  spiritual  internationalism.  She  alone 
can  do  it. 

For  in  the  first  place  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  is 
still  broken  into  fragments  by  national  and  denomina- 
tional divisions,  she  is  practically  the  one  v^orld-wide 
and  international  organization  on  earth  today.  The 
ties  of  ''one  Lord,  one  Faith,  one  Baptism,  one  God  and 
Father  of  all,"  still  bind  together  into  spiritual  unity, 
however  loose  as  yet,  Christian  brethren  of  all  names 
and  all  races.  It  is  our  business  to  develop,  strengthen 
and  vitalize  those  ties  until  they  become  living  bonds, 
the  nerves  and  arteries  of  the  one  body  of  Christ. 

And  in  the  second  place  she  alone  has  the  real  gospel 
of  true  spiritual  internationalism.  Has  she  not  been 
proclaiming  for  nigh  these  two  thousand  years, 
"There  is  no  longer  Greek  nor  Jew,  circumcision  nor 
uncircumcision,  Barbarian  or  Scythian,  bond  or  free, 
but  Christ  is  all  and  in  all?"  Is  it  not  a  fundamental 
principle  of  her  gospel  that  all  men  are  brothers  under 
the  universal  Fatherhood  of  God  and  therefore  all 
nations  and  races  are  members  of  the  one  Divine  fam- 
ily of  humanity? 

Selfish  considerations  of  mutual  financial  interest 
or  mutual  fears  and  advantages  can  bind  the  nations 
together  into  an  unstable  precarious  union,  ready  to 
fly  apart  at  the  slighest  provocation.  Only  spiritual 
and  vital  unities  can  realize  and  create  the  one  body 
of  humanity.  And  w^e  need  not  fear  the  loss  of  the 
precious  values  of  nationalism  with  its  patriotism  and 
development  of  our  particular  national  and  racial  genius 
and  ideals.  The  loyalties  of  life  need  not  quarrel. 
The  lesser  loyalties  need  not  antagonize  the  larger,  but 


94  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

all  can  mutually  strengthen  each  other.  The  better 
a  family  man  one  is,  the  more  he  loves  and  cherishes 
his  own  home  and  domestic  life,  the  better  citizen 
he  ordinarily  is,  for  the  larger  stake  he  has  in  the  com- 
munity and  the  more  devoted  he  is  to  its  welfare. 
Exactly  so, — the  more  conscious  a  nation  is  of  its 
characteristic  ideals  and  national  values,  the  more  it 
has  to  contribute  to  the  fund  and  capital  of  the  com- 
munity of  the  nations.  "Into  the  celestial  city  the 
kings  of  the  earth  do  bring  their  glory  and  honor."  So 
shall  it  be  with  a  true  internationalism.  None  are 
called  on  to  give  up  or  surrender,  but  to  develop  and 
contribute. 

And  we  have  a  peculiar  opportunity  for  cultivating 
that  true  internationalism  here  in  America.  America 
is  the  laboratory  of  such  an  internationalism,  the  melt- 
ting  pot  of  the  world.  In  every  city  and  town,  ay,  al- 
most in  every  village  and  parish,  we  are  confronted 
with  that  problem  and  it  is  a  challenge  to  the  Chris- 
tian church  and  her  ministry.  It  is  not  the  dull,  stupid 
and  often  fatal  business  commonly  called  "American- 
ization" to  which  we  are  summoned.  That  often  means 
teaching  "the  stranger  within  our  gates"  to  despise  his 
own  birth-right  and  inheritance  and  accept  an  often 
grossly  materialistic  commercial  order  as  the  most  glori- 
ous civilization  on  earth.  And  this  process  of  so  called 
Americanization  is  frequently  characterized  by  an  in- 
sufferable arrogance  born  of  a  pitiful  national  conceit 
rather  than  a  true  national  pride,  a  settled  conviction 
that  we  have  all  to  bestow  and  nothing  to  receive,  that 
we  are  to  do  the  uplifting  and  they  are  simply  grate- 
fully to  consent  to  be  uplifted.  It  is  a  deadly  business. 
The  Christian  program'  must  be  utterly  different 
from  that  vulgar  ordinary  program.  It  begins  with 
the   human   approach,   the   simple  friendly   brotherly 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  95 

attitude.  Those  people  are  not  simply  tools  to  be  ex- 
ploited in  the  upbuilding  of  our  industries,  the  in- 
crease of  production  or  the  enlargement  of  our 
bigness  in  population  and  then  flung  aside.  These 
are  our  ordinary  commercial,  social  and  industrial 
approach  and  attitude  towards  the  foreigners,  further 
poisoned  with  social  contempt  We  label  them  "Hun- 
kies"  and  "Dagoes,"  use  them  and  forget  them.  But 
to  the  Christian  these  are  "men  and  brethren"  not 
only  "in  the  flesh"  but  often  "brethren  beloved  in  the 
Lord,"  sharers  in  a  common  Christian  faith  and  call- 
ing. And  there  must  be  also  an  appreciative  estimate 
of  the  precious  values  they  have  to  contribute  to  our 
common  civilization.  They  have  fully  as  much  to 
give  to  us  as  we  have  to  bestow  upon  them.  Even  the 
humblest  of  them  is  frequently  more  richly  endowed 
with  certain  cultural  and  spiritual  values  than  many  a 
common  vulgar  American, — inheritances,  instincts 
and  acquirements  in  music,  art,  poetry,  idealism  and 
mysticism,  which  we  often  sadly  lack  and  sorely  need. 
It  is  our  part  humbly  and  gratefully  to  receive  and 
cherish  the  gifts  they  bring  us. 

It  is  only  by  such  a  human  and  friendly  approach 
and  by  such  a  real  and  just  appreciation  that  social 
prejudices  can  be  broken  down  and  inter-racial  brother- 
hood and  a  true  spiritual  amalgamation  can  be  realized 
in  this  melting  pot  of  America.  And  the  Christian 
spirit  alone  can  accomplish  it.  If  we  achieve  such  a 
Christian  inter-racialism  here,  its  consequence  and 
contagion  shall  spread  throughout  the  world  in  a 
mighty  impulse  towards  Christian  inter-nationalism. 

Yes,  Christian  America  can  and  ought  to  lead  in 
the  establishment  of  that  spiritual  internationalism 
without  which  no  league  of  nations  or  any  other  politi- 
cal device  can  function  successfully  for  universal  peace. 


96  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

Again,  there  is  the  challenge  of  the  industrial  situa- 
tion. It  is  an  universal  and  identical  problem  through- 
out the  world.  Everywhere  the  disillusionment  that 
followed  close  upon  the  heels  of  the  war,  the  crushing 
disappointment  of  all  the  high  hopes  and  ideals  which 
inspired  them  to  take  up  arms  and  sustained  their 
unparalleled  endurance,  has  thrown  the  masses  into 
ominous  reaction.  Everywhere  restlessness  and  dis- 
content, sometimes  sodden  and  despairing  but  more 
often  mad  and  reckless,  are  upheaving  the  very  founda- 
tions of  our  industrial  system  and  our  social  order. 
The  world  was  to  be  made  safe  for  democracy,  uni- 
versal and  permanent  peace  were  to  be  established, 
opportunity  and  equity  were  to  be  opened  to  the  small- 
est nations  and  the  commonest  men, — and  behold  wars 
rage,  conflicts  between  peoples  and  classes  deepen 
and  the  old  order  continues  with  its  tyrannies  and 
oppressions.  The  masses  everywhere  are  in  revolt, 
sullen  and  smouldering,  or  flaming  and  passionate. 
Every  intelligent  thinking  man,  especially  every  one 
familiar  with  history,  must  be  aware  that  we  face  one 
of  those  secular  and  world-wide  social  movements  that 
every  now  and  then  sweep  through  human  history. 
As  in  the  middle  ages,  there  was  the  irresistible  rise 
of  the  merchant  and  financier,  the  tradesman  and  in- 
dustrialist, until  the  feudal  rule  of  kings  and  nobles 
was  swept  away  or  faded  into  a  mere  shadow  of  a 
form,  and  the  present  domination  of  the  business  man 
over  the  modern  world  was  established,  so  now  we 
are  witnessing  a  similar  movement.  The  masses  of 
workers,  the  proletariat,  are  rising,  here  slowly  and 
there  suddenly,  but  everywhere  surely,  to  assert  and 
make  good  their  claim  to  their  rights  and  their  place 
in  the  common  life. 

There  are  two  extreme  positions  confronting  each 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  97 

other  in  this  movement.  In  Russia  the  autocracy  of  the 
privileged  and  powerful  has  been  overthrown,  but  at 
the  same  time  all  the  ideals  of  democracy  seem  to 
have  been  abandoned  and  a  triumphant  but,  I  believe,  tem- 
porary autocracy  of  the  proletariat  (a  minority  at 
that)  has  been  established.  It  cannot  last,  I  am  firm- 
ly convinced,  into  the  world  even  of  the  near  future. 

In  America  we  seem  to  be  witnessing  the  opposite 
extreme.  If  we  may  trust  the  propaganda  of  many  of 
our  manufacturers'  associations,  the  deliberate  plan  of 
many  of  our  captains  of  industry  is  to  seize  the  oppor- 
tunity afforded  by  business  depression  and  industrial 
unemployment  to  crush  once  and  for  all  the  ambitions 
and  aspirations  of  labor,  right  or  wrong,  smash  all  its 
organization,  reduce  it  to  a  mere  horde  of  helpless  in- 
dividuals, and  then  maintain  impregnable  the  sacro- 
sanct system  of  "things  as  they  are,"  the  absolute 
autocracy  of  the  privileged  and  powerful,  wherein  all, 
from  the  President  of  the  Republic  to  the  commonest 
laborer,  must  submit  to  the  dictation  of  a  constantly 
concentrating  obligarchy  of  financiers  and  captains  of 
industry,  the  invisible  government.  The  open  shop 
movement,  or  so  called  American  plan,  looks  to  many 
like  a  transparent  camouflage  to  cover  this  purpose, 
and  has  been  so  declared  in  certain  official  utterances 
of  various  ecclesiastical  bodies. 

It  is  a  most  dangerous  position  and  policy  to  take, 
fully  as  dangerous  as  that  of  Russia.  It  is  like  sitting 
on  the  crater  of  a  volcano  about  to  erupt,  attempting 
to  suppress  an  earthquake,  or  putting  weights  on  the 
safety  valve  just  when  the  hottest  fires  are  kindled 
under  the  boiler.  American  labor,  though  sometimes 
unreasonable  in  its  demands,  often  narrow  and  tyran- 
nical in  its  organizations  and  still  more  frequently 
badly  and  dishonestly  led,  has  on  the  whole  been  con- 


98  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

servative.  It  has  confined  its  attention  to  technical 
questions  of  hours,  wages  and  conditions.  It  has  never 
adequately  studied  economic  principles  and  never  ven- 
tured into  the  political  field. 

Repression  and  suppression  w^ill  certainly  drive  it 
into  economic  and  political  action,  (a  not  altogether 
undesirable  possibility)  and  may  further  drive  it  into 
the  madness  of  radicalism,  which  God  forbid.  This 
will  bring  revolution  instead  of  evolution. 

There  is  a  way  out  which  we  shall  all  finally  be 
compelled  to  take — Russia  and  America  alike — and 
that  is  the  substitution  of  some  workable  constitu- 
tional democracy  in  industry  for  either  the  autocracy 
of  the  proletariat  or  the  autocracy  of  the  privileged 
and  powerful,  a  just  sharing  of  the  products  and  profits 
of  industry  between  capital,  labor  and  the  public,  and 
a  due  allocation  of  authority  and  power  in  the  deter- 
mination of  the  policies  and  the  conditions  of  industry 
among  those  who  invest  money  and  brains  and  those 
who  invest  life  and  labor,  and  also  to  the  government 
which  represents  all  the  rest  of  us,  whose  welfare  and 
very  existence  are  now  constantly  imperilled  by  the 
persistent  quarrels  of  the  two  greedy  partners  in  pro- 
duction. 

England  is  already  making  sporadic  experiments  on 
a  nation  wide  scale  in  this  direction  of  industrial 
democracy.  For  example,  there  is  the  organization  of 
the  building  trades  into  local  councils  and  a  national 
trade  parliament,  each  composed  of  equal  numbers  of 
employers  and  employees.  In  America  similar  schemes 
are  being  tried  out  in  individual  industries  by  far- 
seeing,  open-minded  employers  and  corporations.  And 
the  reformers  on  every  side  are  busily  drawing  up 
plans  and  specifications  for  such  an  industrial 
democracy. 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  99 

What  are  the  office  of  the  Church  and  the  function 
of  her  ministry  in  the  face  of  such  a  problem  and 
opportunity?  Again  I  answer, — noit  to  attempt  to  ad- 
vise or  counsel  as  to  the  details  of  plans  and  organiza- 
tion, not  to  try  their  hand  on  the  construction  of  the 
machinery.  That  is  the  business  of  experts.  But  it 
may  be  our  duty  and  privilege  to  stand  boldly  for 
the  principle  of  industrial  democracy.  It  is  inspired 
by  the  mind  and  spirit  of  the  gospel  of  which  we  are 
stewards.  And  it  is  certainly  our  business  to  inculcate 
and  establish  as  far  as  we  can  those  moral  and  spirit- 
ual principles  upon  which  alone  industrial  democracy 
can  stand  stable  and  secure,  and  to  create  the  moral 
and  spiritual  atmosphere  in  which  alone  it  can  func- 
tion. As  I  see  it,  there  are  three  outstanding  principles 
which  alone  can  give  power  and  success  to  any  system 
of  industrial  democracy — indeed  which  alone  can  make 
it  possible. 

First  there  is  the  simple  but  absolutely  indispensable 
temper  or  attitude  of  good-will. 

The  promise  of  peace  came  on  the  angels'  song  on 
Bethlehem's  plains  to  "men  of  good  will."  That  was 
the  very  first  note  of  the  message  of  Christianity.  And 
peace  in  any  realm  of  life  can  come  to  men  of  good 
will  only.  Where  there  is  such  good  will  on  all  sides 
alm^ost  any  system  and  order  can  be  worked  passably, 
though  some  are  better  expressions  of  good  will  than 
others  and  consequently  will  work  better.  And  no 
system  however  perfect  will  work  without  good  will. 
Industrial  democracy  absolutely  depends  both  for  its 
inception  and  its  effectual  working  upon  such  good  will 
on  both  sides.  And  it  is  the  primary  business  of 
Christianity  to  create  good  will.  President  Hyde  sums 
up  the  whole  Christian  message  in  the  phrase  "the 
gospel  of  good  will."    That  must  be  its  primary  mes- 


100         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

sage  and  mission  in  the  present  imperfect  industrial 
and  social  order  if  it  is  to  be  tolerable  at  all.  That 
must  still  more  be  its  message  and  mission  if  a  more 
Christian  order  and  system  are  to  be  established. 

We  must  have  men  of  the  largest,  patientest  good 
will  among  our  captains  of  industry,  our  men  of  re- 
sponsibility, power  and  leadership  in  the  industrial 
world.  Particularly  at  this  critical  epoch  we  need  men  at 
the  top  with  open  minds  and  sweet  reasonableness,  men 
who  shall  face  squarely  the  situation,  recognize  that  we 
are  surely  confronted  by  a  changing  order  and 
adjust  themselves  rationally,  sanely,  and  if  possi- 
ble, sympathetically  thereto ;  above  all,  men  who  shall 
appreciate  the  just  and  righteous  aspirations  and  ambi- 
tions of  labor  and  meet  them  at  least  half  way  with 
"'the  grace  of  congruity."  But  the  present  temper  and 
mind  of  many  of  our  industrial  leaders,  at  least  of 
those  who  are  most  blatant  in  the  present  propaganda 
of  organized  capital,  seem  to  be  just  the  opposite  of 
good  will,  open-mindedness  and  sweet  reasonableness, 
though,  thank  God,  there  are  many  noble  exceptions. 

This  is  a  reproach  to  the  Church  and  her  ministry. 
We  have  many  of  these  men,  perhaps  the  majority 
of  them,  in  our  congregations,  and  if  our  preaching 
and  teaching  and  worship  have  not  induced  and  pro- 
duced in  them  this  simple  first  principle  of  elementary 
Christianity,  then  our  work  has  been  a  failure  and 
our  religion  of  no  effect. 

But  there  must  be  good  will  on  the  other  side  also, 
a  recognition  by  labor  of  the  difficulties  of  the  employ- 
er's position  in  the  flux  of  a  changing  order,  a  sensitive 
discernment  of  his  good  will  and  sweet  reasonableness, 
whenever  evidenced,  and  a  willingness  to  meet  it  half 
way  with  open  mind,  trust  and  co-operation. 

And  good  will  here  is  naturally  rarer  to  find  and 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  101 

harder  to  cultivate  than  on  the  other  side  (though 
some  of  the  recent  utterances  of  several  of  our  labor 
leaders  and  the  policies  they  have  set  forth  show  more 
of  that  spirit  than  is  evidenced  in  most  of  the  propa- 
ganda of  the  other  side).  I  say  good  will  is  naturally 
rarer  to  find  and  harder  to  cultivate  in  the  ranks  of 
labor,  first,  because  there  is  generally  a  lower  sitand- 
ard  of  intelligence  and  education ;  and  second,  because 
of  an  ingrained  suspicion,  instinctive  and  deep-rooted, 
sometimes  seemingly  irrational  but  often  the  slowly 
ripening  and  bitter  fruit  of  a  long  experience  of  in- 
justice and  even  deception.  It  is  peculiarly  difficult  to 
cultivate  that  spirit  and  temper  in  American  labor 
union  circles,  first  because  its  policy  has  been  so  nar- 
row and  technical.  It  has  lacked  the  breadth  of  view, 
the  clearness  of  vision  and  the  comprehensive  econo^ 
mic  and  political  grasp  that  have  specially  character- 
ized British  trades  unionism,  particularly  the  labor 
party.  And  also,  because  in  this  country  labor  organi- 
zations have  been  almost  exclusively  confined  to  mere- 
ly manual  laborers.  The  intellectuals  have  been 
largely  shut  out.  There  has  been  no  union  of  brain 
and  brawn  such  as  is  found  in  the  English  labor  party. 
And  particularly  the  Christian  element  has  been  con- 
spicuous by  its  absence.  In  England  professional 
men,  teachers,  physicians,  statesmen,  publicists  and 
ministers  are  found  in  abundance  in  the  ranks  of  the 
labor  party.  People  like  Sidney  and  Beatrice  Webb, 
and  the  whole  Fabian  group  are  among  its  leaders. 
And  as  for  Christian  influence,  the  platform  of  the 
British  Labor  party  issued  during  the  war  bears  ample 
testimony  to  that.  Its  very  language  is  saturated  with 
the  phraseology  of  St.  Paul's  epistles  and  of  the  gos- 
pels, and  its  fundamental  principles  are  distinctively 
Christian. 


102         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

The  absence  of  the  intellectuals  and  of  Christian 
leaders  from  the  American  labor  movement  is  due 
tlo  itwo  causes.  There  is  fault  on  both  sides.  As  I 
have  already  suggested,  there  has  been  narrowness, 
intolerance  and  bigotry  on  the  part  of  labor,  an  unwill- 
ingness to  recognize  any  work  as  labor  which  is  not 
actual  manual  toil  engaged  in  material  production  or 
service. 

And  also  there  has  been  indifference  on  the  parit  ol 
intellectuals,  and  particularly  Christian  leaders,  toi- 
wards  the  essentially  spiritual  ideals  underlying  the 
whole  labor  movement  and  a  consequent  aloofness 
therefrom.  Only  here  and  there  pioneer  souls  like 
Stelze  have  gone  into  the  movement.  That  is  a  shame- 
ful reproach  to  the  Church  and  her  ministry. 

American  labor  is  assuredly  going  into  the  economic 
and  the  political  field.  It  will  probably  form  the 
nucleus  of  the  new  panty  so'  sadly  needed  in  this 
crisis  when  both  of  the  dominant  parties  have  so  evi- 
dently gone  to  seed,  if  not  fallen  into  decay,  and  are 
today  without  any  real  principles,  issues  or  leader- 
ship and  particularly  without  hospitality  or  even  toler- 
ance for  any  progressive  or  forward-looking  minds. 
If  the  new  party  is  to  be  a  rallying  ground  and  refuge 
for  true  liberalism,  it  must  have  intellectual  leader- 
ship. And  if  it  is  to  make  for  peace  and  progress  and 
a  true  industrial  democracy,  it  must  have  the  Christian 
temper  and  spirit  of  good  will  and  reasonableness. 
That  is  one  of  the  greatest  challenges  that  confroilts 
the  Church  and  her  ministry  today. 

That,  then,  is  the  first  and  the  absolutely  essential 
contribution  which  our  Christianity  must  make 
towards  a  more  Christian  industrial  order — the  temper 
and  atmosphere  of  "good  will."  It  is  only  in  that 
temper  that  any  approach  tO'  the  solution  of  our  prob- 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  103 

lems  can  be  made  from  either  side,  and  it  is  only  in 
that  atmosphere  of  good  will  that  any  system  of  indus- 
try can  function,  to  serve  and  produce  for  our  needs. 

So  far  all  Christians  and  even  social  reformers,  re- 
actionary, conservative,  liberal  or  radical,  would  go 
with  us,  I  suppose.  But  we  must  go  farther  if  we 
really  follow  Christ. 

If  the  industrial  order  lis  tO'  become  "more  Chris- 
tian," yes,  if  it  is  even  to  produce  enough  to  serve  our 
needs,  ay,  as  I  believe,  if  it  is  to  stand  and  continue 
at  all,  co-operation  in  service  must  somehow  be  sub- 
stituted for  competition  for  profits  and  wages  as  its 
paramount  end  and  motive.  Competition  as  honest 
rivalry  and  honorable  emulation  may  be  praiseworthy, 
may  even  be  the  "life  of  trade."  But  competition  as 
a  "scrap  for  the  swag"  is  fatal  to  all  concerned,  especi- 
ally the  public.  It  is  a  perpetual  wonder  and  miracle 
that  the  people  are  fed,  clothed,  warmed,  transported 
and  served  at  all  in  our  present  system,  when  the  com- 
mon factors,  labor  and  capital,  spend  so  much  of  their 
time,  mind  and  energy,  not  in  the  processes  of  produc- 
tion and  service,  but  in  quarreling  over  the  loot.  Com- 
pute the  costs  of  strikes  and  lock-outs  and  you  will  be 
amazed  that  industry  can  still  go  on  working  and  pro^ 
ducing  with  that  crushing  burden  upon  its  back. 
Under  the  stress  of  the  war  the  whole  competitive 
system  confessedly  broke  down.  It  was  utterly  un- 
able to  meet  the  demands  of  the  tremendous  crisis; 
and  the  government  was  forced  in  large  measure  to 
eliminate  competition  for  profit  and  enforce  by  law 
co-operation  in  common  service.  The  needs  of  peace 
are  just  as  vital  and  far  more  continuous  than  the 
needs  of  war. 

It  is  the  business  of  religion  to  preach  continually 
to  both  combatants  the  old  trite  sermon,  "Sirs,  ye  are 


104         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

brethren"  and  it  may  become  the  business  of  g^overn- 
memt  to  take  both  parties  by  the  scruff  of  their  necks, 
knock  their  heads  together  and  preach  in  sterner  tones, 
"Ye  are  fellow-servants  of  the  common-weal,  and  the 
commonwealth  cannoit  and  will  not  longer  endure  your 
overweening  lordship  nor  yet  your  perpetual  strife. 
You  are  'not  drafted  to  fight  each  other  for  supreme 
domination  but  you  are  under  bonds  to  serve  us." 

And  that  brings  me  to  my  last  point,  the  crux  of 
the  whole  problem  of  a  more  Christian  civilization, — 
the  supremacy,  ay,  the  paramountcy  of  service  as 
the  motive  of  all  activity  and  of  all  life. 

If  there  is  to  be  any  real  democracy  in  industry,  it 
must  be  founded  on  that  Christian  and  Gospel  prin- 
ciple of  the  (supremacy  of  service. 

But  the  chief  enemy  of  this  service  motive, — that 
which  practically  destroys  it — is  the  mercenary  motive, 
which  makes  profits,  wages,  dividends,  the  supreme 
end  and  purpose  of  all  activity.  The  two  motives  aTe 
essentially  irreconcilable.  Jesus  put  that  fact  uncom- 
promisingly when  He  said,  not  "ye  must  not,"  but  "Ye 
can  not  serve  God  and  mammon."  The  emphasis  is 
on  the  "and."  Tested  by  that  test,  by  far  the  larger 
part  of  our  civilization,  particularly  our  whole  com- 
mercial and  industrial  system,  is  frankly  and  unasham- 
edly pagan  and  heathen.  The  other  and  smaller  por- 
tion of  our  social  order  is  already  redeemed  and 
Christianized  at  least  in  its  acknowledged  standards 
and  professed  ideals,  however  it  may  fail  in  individual 
instances  to  attain  those  standards  and  achieve  those 
ideals. 

It  is  entirely  a  question  of  the  order  of  an  occupa- 
tion or  life, — what  things  it  puts  first,  the  hierarchy 
of  its  motives, — ^as  to  whether  that  occupation  or  life 
is  Christian  or  heathen  in  spirit  and  character,  whether 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  105 

it  belongs  to  the  Kingdom  of  God  or  whether  it  is 
"of  the  world  worldly."  Jesus  established  the  infalli- 
ble test  when  He  said,  "Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  the  righteousness  thereof,  and  all  these 
things  (food,  drink  and  raiment,  the  material  basis  of 
mere  living)  shall  be  added  unto-  you."  Judged  by 
this  standard,  whatever  occupation  or  life  puts  first 
as  its  supreme  end  and  objective  and  finds  therein  its 
supreme  motive,  the  service  of  beauty,  truth,  right- 
eousness or  human  need,  and  regards  the  material 
returns  for  such  service  as  means  to  that  end, — coal 
under  the  boiler  to  keep  the  wheels  going, — that  occupa- 
tion or  life  is  Christian  in  spirit  and  character.  It  is 
in  the  right  Christian  order.  Whatever  occupation  or 
life  seeks  first  the  material  returns  of  service,  whether 
as  profits,  dividends  or  wages,  and  makes  service  a 
mere  means  to  that  end,  that  occupation  or  life  is 
heathen  in  spirit  and  character.  It  has  inverted  the 
Ghristian  order.  It  has  things  just  upside  down.  It 
is  inot  a  question  of  what  you  do,  but  of  the  motive 
with  which  and  the  spirit  in  which  you  do  whatever 
you  do. 

Under  this  test  the  boundary  line  between  the  King- 
dom of  God  and  the  Kingdom  of  Mammon  is  readily 
traceable.  There  are  certain  occupations  and  pursuits, 
certain  whole  planes  or  regions  of  our  social  order  that 
fall  more  or  less  naturally  into  the  Christian  realm, 
and  others  into  the  worldly  realm.  It  is  not  a  ques- 
tion to  be  determined  by  individual  instances,  but  by 
prevailing  and  accepted  standards.  There  are  some  in 
every  sphere  who  rise  above  the  established  and  oo'n- 
ventional  sitandards  of  their  sphere  and  others  who 
fall  below.  But  the  standards  remain  and  determine 
at  least  the  ideal  of  the  sphere. 

Dr.  Walter  Rauschenbush  in  his  great  book,  "Chris- 


106  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

tianizing  the  Socifal  Order"  has  set  forth  a  masterly 
exposition  of  this  theme  and  illumined  it  with  a  wealth 
of  illustration.  To  that  great  book,  probably  familiar 
to  most  of  you,  I  must  refer  you.  I  can  in  the  brief 
time  remaining  to  me  only  summarize  in  a  few  hasty 
sentences  some  of  these  illustrations. 

The  mercenary  or  profit  motive  once  ruled  in  the 
primitive  family  group.  Polygamous  wives  were 
breeding  mares.  Sons  and  daughters  were  profitable 
live  sitock,  raised  respectively  for  the  wiar  market  and 
the  labor  or  marriage  market  (the  last  practice  seems 
to  be  not  wholly  obsolete  today  in  some  families).  And 
the  father  or  sheik  was  the  sole  stockholder  or  monop- 
olistic owner  of  the  trust. 

Compare  the  Christian  family  of  today.  The  law 
of  love  has  driven  out  the  law  of  profit.  Polygamy 
has  given  place  to  monogamy.  The  despotism  of  man, 
fortified  by  custom,  law  and  economic  possession,  has 
passed  into  approximalte  equality  between  husband 
and  wife.  Children  are  no  longer  rated  sim.ply  by  the 
standard  of  eco'nomic  valuation,  sO'  that  the  crippled, 
the  weak,  and  even  female  infants  are  exposed  to 
death  as  they  frequently  are  in  heathen  lands.  They 
are  rated  according  to  the  standard  of  human  oir 
personal  values,  so  that  the  tenderest,  most  solicitous 
care  is  generally  bestowed  upon  members  which  have 
the  least  economic  worth.  Based  on  equal  rights 
bound  together  by  love  and  respect  for  individuality, 
governed  under  the  law  of  mutual  helpfulness,  ex- 
hibiting economic  co-operation  and  a  satisfactory  com- 
munity of  interests,  instead  of  the  old  exploitation 
by  its  head,  the  family  today  furnishes  the  most 
natural  home  and  congenial  atmosphere  for  Ch^nstian 
life  and  fellowship.  The  ideal  Christian  family  is 
the  puresit  and  highest  manifestation  of  the  Kingdom 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  107 

of  God  yet  realized  on  earth,  by  no  means  excepting 
the  Church :  and  it  is  the  microcosm,  the  working 
model  of  what  the  social  order,  of  what  civilization 
itself  would  become,  could  the  profit  motive  be  sub- 
ordinated and  the  motive  of  mutual  service  be  estab- 
lished in  its  rightful  supremacy, — that  is,  if  civilization 
were  Christianized. 

We  recognize  instinctively  and  naturally  that  the 
mercenary  motive  utterly  spoils  certain  professions 
and  vocations.  The  artist  must  be  inspired  solely  or 
chiefly  by  the  love  and  service  of  beauty.  If  he  seeks 
primarily  material  reward,  he  produces  only  cheap 
chromos,  trade  posters  or  that  unspeakably  grotesque 
and  demoralizing  art,  the  comic  supplement.  We  sus- 
pect the  physician  who  advertises.  We  set  him  down 
as  a  quack  and  are  generally  right  in  our  judgment. 
Why  do  we  so  instinctively  form  this  judgment?  Be- 
cause the  true  physician  is  supposed  to  be  actuated 
primarily  by  devotion  to  his  science  and  human  ser- 
vice. The  commercialized  practice  of  medicine  is  a 
deadly  evil,  as  we  all  recognize. 

The  scientific  investigator  pursues  truth  for  its  own 
sake  and  its  human  values.  Agassiz,  tempted  into 
commercial  life  by  glittering  promises  of  great  mate- 
rial rewards  but  saying,  *T  have  not  time  to  make 
money,"  is  an  echo  of  Jesus  in  the  wilderness  spurning 
the  offer  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory 
of  them,  saying  "Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan."  And 
the  teacher  or  preacher  who  should  confess  that  he 
took  his  job  wholly  or  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  the 
salary,  would  be  adjudged  guilty  of  profanation  of 
the  ideal  of  his  calling  and  high  treason  thereto,  if  he 
were  not  first  committed  to  an  imbecile  asylum  for 
entering  such  a  profession  with  any  anticipation  of 
making  money  therein.    Yes,  in  all  these  professions 


108         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

and  vocations  we  have  esitablished  the  supremacy  of 
the  ideal  motives,  beauty,  truth,  human  service,  "the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  the  rightness  thereof."  Individual 
derelictions  from  the  established  standards  serve  but 
as  a  foil  to  bring  out  those  standards  in  bold  relief 
before  the  common  judgment. 

But   in    business,    commerce,    trade,   industry,   ithe 
primacy  of  the  mercenary  motive  is  commonly  recog- 
nized without  even  a  question.     It  is  openly,  frankly 
and   unashamedly   confessed.     Why   does   a  man   go 
into  business?    Why  to  make  money,  of  course.     For 
what  else  should  he  be  in  business?     Why  does  the 
laborer  work?     Why  for  wages,  of  course.     Service 
rendered  to  society  is  incidental,  the  means  to  that  end. 
And  often  the  rule  in  both  classes  is  the  least  possible 
service  rendered  for  the  largest  returns  attainable. 
I     When  shall  we  awake  tO'  the  fact  that  the  mercenary 
j  motive  spoils  the  making  of  pig  iron,  the  running  of 
I  railroads  or  the  digging  of  ditches  as  surely  and  as 
I  fatally    as    it    does    art,    literature,    medicine,    science, 
teaching  or  the  very  preaching  of  the  gospel  itself? 
When  shall  we   recognize  that   this   primacy   of   the 
profit  motive  is  the  chief  source  of  all  the  dishonesty, 
graft,   tyranny   and   oppression   that    characterize    so 
largely  our  commercial  and  industrial  systems?    This 
question  is  the  supreme  challenge  to  and  the  crucial 
test  of  our  social  gospel  and  prophetic  ministry  today. 
Whether  or  not  we  have   a   clear  and   commanding 
vision  of  the  Kingdom  as  the  goal  of  the  gospel  is 
determined  by  our  aJttitude  towards  this  question.    As 
Dr.  Coe  has  put  it,  "Is  a  system  in  which  one  works 
for    wages    and    another    for    profits    fundamentally 
Christian,  anti-Christian  or  neutral?    Are  its  motives 
Christian?    What  is  the  effect  upon  character  of  the  re- 
peated exercise  of  its  motives?     What  is  the  actual 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  109 

outcome  as  respects  the  relations  of  man  to  man? 
Here  we  are  concerned  with  the  meaning  and  value 
of  life.  Our  question  leads  straight  back  to  Christ 
and  straight  forward  to  any  vision  that  we  dare  to 
indulge  concerning  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  It  is  not  answered  by  any  position  we  may  take 
upon  such  special  problems  as  hours  of  labor  or  pre- 
vention of  industrial  accidents :  much  less  can  any 
talk  of  a  fair  wage  so'  much  as  touch  it.  It  is  the  great 
parting  of  ways  for  the  Christian  ethics  of  society. 
The  ministry  must  take  upon  this  question  an  open 
stand  that  is  definitely  Christian  or  lose  its  soul !" 

But  how  shall  the  primacy  of  the  mercenary  or  profit 
motive  be  disestablished  in  that  heathen  portion  of 
our  social  order — industry,  trade,  commerce,  business, 
— and  the  supremacy  of  the  service  motive  set  up,  that 
our  civilization  may  become  "more  Christian?" 

Socialism  suggests  a  way.  It  proposes  to  construct 
by  law  and  statute  an  entirely  new  social  and  econo- 
mic system ;  to  abolish  the  capitalistic  constitution  of 
industry  and  commerce  and  substitute  some  form  of 
collectivism  not  yet  clearly  defined,  to  eliminate  the 
profit  motive  entirely  by  abolishing  private  property 
at  least  in  large  degree.  Thus  it  would  put  co-opera- 
tion for  service  in  the  place  of  competition  for  profit. 

Socialism  of  some  sort  may  be  the  final  form  of 
society  at  which  we  shall  eventually  arrive.  We  seem 
to  have  been  drifting  rapidly  in  that  direction  lately, 
especially  under  the  pressure  of  war  necessities.  More 
and  more  regions  of  our  business  and  industrial  world 
which  wxre  once  in  private  hands  and  under  the  law 
of  private  gain  have  become  socialized  and  govern- 
mentalized  and  organized  for  public  service.  The  edu- 
cational system  and  postal  system  are  illustrations. 
The  express  business  is  following  through  the  parcels- 


110         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

post.  And  behind  it  press  in  the  same  procession  the 
telegraph  and  telephone,  the  railroads  and  all  public 
utiHties,  perhaps  also  certain  of  our  great  monopolized 
and  trustified  industries.  How  far  the  process  will  go 
no  one  can  yet  predict. 

And  we  must  all  confess  that  the  regeneration  of 
individuals,  one  by  one,  will  never  bring  in  the  per- 
fect society,  the  Kingdom  of  God.  We  need  for  that 
a  new  system,  one  that  shall  foster,  aid,  and  inspire 
individual  righteousness  instead  of  discouraging  and 
suppressing  and  all  but  making  it  impossible,  as  our 
present  system  confessedly  does.  Socialism  may  be 
sketching  some  of  the  lines  for  this  new  system  of 
society,  the  oudines  of  the  ground-plan  of  the  new 
Jerusalem,  the  City  of  God. 

But  even  if  our  civilization  should  be  completely 
socialized,  it  would  not  thereby  be  Christianized.  It 
might  become  a  materialistic  Utopia  without  being  in 
any  sense  a  Kingdom  of  God.  And  unless  it  be  Chris- 
tianized, it  will  lapse  into  a  heathenism  far  more  de- 
graded and  cruel  than  our  present  system.  And  our 
last  state  shall  be  worse  than  the  first. 

The  social  aim  of  religion  and  the  Church  is  quite 
distinct  from,  and  far  profounder  than,  that  of  socialism. 
Socialism  approaches  the  problem  from  without  and 
below.  It  deals  with  machinery  and  forms.  It  seeks 
reformation,  that  is,  the  reforming  or  reshaping  of 
the  outward  plan  and  fabric  of  our  civilization. 

Christianity  and  the  Church,  so  far  as  she  represents 
Christianity,  like  their  Founder,  approach  the  problem 
from  within  and  above.  They  seek  not  a  reformation 
only,  but  a  regeneration.  They  labor  and  pray  and 
preach  and  strive  not  simply  for  a  new  form  for  soci- 
ety but  a  new  heart,  a  new  conscience  and  mind  in 
society.    Without  these,  the  most  perfect  social,  econo- 


The  Prophetic  Program  for  Today  111 

mic,  and  political  system  would  be  as  an  engine  with- 
out steam,  ay,  as  a  beautiful  body  without  an  animat- 
ing soul,  doomed  to  death  and  decay,  or  possibly  that 
same  body  possessed  by  a  demon. 

You  cannot  have  even  a  successful  and  workable 
socialism  without  socialized  men  and  women  and  a 
general  social  conscience  and  public  opinion.  With 
such  socialized  men  and  women  and  with  such  a 
regnant  social  conscience,  almost  any  system  can  be 
worked.  And  if  the  present  system  proves  unfit  to 
the  new  spirit,  that  new  spirit  will  work  out  its  own 
system. 

That  system  may  turn  out  to  be  socialism  as  our 
socialists  have  planned  it  and  again  it  may  not.  It 
may  be  something  vastly  better. 

But  with  that  new  heart  and  conscience,  with  that 
new  socialized  spirit  alone  is  religion  concerned.  As 
we  have  already  seen,  certain  regions  and  realms  of 
our  civilization  have  already  been  lifted  out  of  the 
slough  of  commercialism,  have  already  been  inspired 
with  the  ideals  and  standards  of  the  Kingdom,  even 
in  the  midst  of  our  present  constitution  of  society. 
Why  may  not  the  same  thing  be  possible  for  business, 
commerce,  and  industry? 

Here  is  the  call  of  the  new  social  conscience  of  the 
day. 

And  in  that  call  rings  a  supreme  challenge  to  our 
prophetic  ministry.  Whatever  system  be  established 
in  our  industrial  and  commercial  realms,  we  can  not 
be  content  or  silent  until  the  supremacy  of  service  be 
set  up  and  rule  therein.  Thus  and  thus  only  can  our 
social  order  be  Christianized.  Thus  and  thus  only 
can  "the  Kingdoms  of  this  world'*  become  the  ''Kingdom 
of  our  Lord  and  His  Christ." 


VI 

Critic — Reformer — Prophet 

THUS  far  in  the  course  I  have  dealt  with  the 
message  and  mission  of  the  prophetic  ministry  as 
a  whole,  both  in  the  general  character  of  that 
message  and  mission  and  also^  in  their  particular  applica- 
tions to  the  times  in  which  we  live.  Now  for  two  lectures 
I  would  turn  to  our  individual  ministries  and  consider  the 
question  as  to  how  we  are  personally  to  deliver  that 
message  and  fulfill  that  mission,  each  in  his  particular 
field  of  service. 

I  would  speak  especially  today  of  the  mind,  temper  and 
spirit  of  the  true  prophet  of  God. 

There  are  three  distinct  ways  of  approach  to  those 
great  social  problems  with  which  it  is  our  business,  as 
heralds  of  the  Kingdom,  to  concern  ourselves — three  dis- 
tinct attitudes  towards  them. 

The  first  is  that  of  the  mere  social  critic.  He  some- 
times has  his  use — as  a  kind  of  gad-fly  to  sting  torpid 
consciences  into  sensitiveness.  But  generally  he  is  worse 
than  futile,  for  he  often  stings  the  victims  of  his  criticisms 
into  the  blindness  of  rage  rather  than  into  sensitiveness 
of  conscience,  and  he  is  generally  destructive  rather  than 
constructive. 

The  second  is  that  of  the  would-be  social  reformer, 
who  should  be,  but  frequently  is  not,  the  expert,  the  wise 
and  thoroughly  equipped  economist,  sociologist,  indus- 
trialist, and  statesman,  who  knows  how  to  set  up  the 
machinery  through  which  alone  a  true  social  or  industrial 
order  can  operate. 

112 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  113 

And  the  third  is  that  of  the  prophet  who  deals  with 
the  dynamics  rather  than  the  mechanics  of  the  problem, 
the  moral  and  spiritual  principles  that  must  underlie  any 
true  social  or  industrial  order,  the  motives  which  alone 
can  inspire  its  right  working,  the  atmosphere  in  which 
alone  it  can  function. 

The  last,  of  course,  is  our  only  true  role,  though 
many  preachers  of  the  social  gospel  essay  or  get  entangled 
in  one  or  both  of  the  other  roles. 

Jeremiah  once,  perhaps  on  a  blue  Monday,  sighed,  "O, 
that  I  had  in  the  wilderness  a  lodging  place  for  wayfaring 
men  that  I  might  leave  my  people  and  go  from  them"; 
and  then  he  proceeded  to  arraign  and  denounce  in  his 
characteristic  fashion  the  social  sins  of  Judah.  As 
George  Adam  Smith  has  keenly  observed,  the  prophet 
is  not  longing  for  solitude  in  some  hermit's  cell  or  anch- 
orite's cave.  The  word  he  uses  means  a  Khan  or  cara- 
vansery — an  inn  on  the  highways — the  trunk  lines 
through  the  wilderness — a  public  house  thronged  with 
travellers  and  guests  for  a  night,  a  "lodging  place  for 
wavfaring  men."  That  is,  Jeremiah  is  longing  for  hotel 
life! 

Now  a  hotel  is  an  ideal  study  or  work-shop  for  a  mere 
social  critic.  It  is  a  kind  of  watch-tower  where  he  may 
observe  society  from  a  safe  coign  of  isolation.  He  may 
look  on  at  its  life  without  being  a  partaker  thereof.  He 
may  fling  his  gibes  at  its  foibles  and  aim  his  shafts  at  its 
sins  without  any  sense  of  common  responsibility  and  guilt 
or  of  any  obligation  for  constructiV-e  or  remedial  service. 
I  should  think  that  "peacock  row"  in  the  Waldorf-As- 
toria, in  the  days  when  it  was  the  fashionable  hostelry  of 
New  York,  would  have  been  a  favorite  resort  for  the 
problem  or  society  novelist  seeking  material  or  atmos- 
phere. He  could  mentally  photograph  and  record  for  his 
pages  its  vulgar  ostentation,  its  beefy,  flabby,  overdressed 


114  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

and  underdressed  women  (as  Wm.  Morris  says,  "Not 
clothed  like  human  beings  but  upholstered  like  arm- 
chairs"), its  coarse,  hard,  sensual  men,  its  inane  talk — 
and  then  present  these  as  a  true  picture  of  society  as  it 
is.  He  could  sharpen  his  epigrams,  envenom  them  with 
his  caustic  wit,  indulge  in  a  perfect  riot  and  orgy  of  sar- 
casm, and  then  collect  his  royalties  for  a  most  enjoyable, 
amusing  and  popular  Hterary  entertainment.  That  is  all 
the  usual  problem  novel  is.  Something  like  that  Jere- 
miah was  longing  for — to  be  a  social  critic,  a  problem 
novelist  rather  than  a  prophet  of  God.  But  as  a  prophet 
he  belonged  to  his  people  and  they  belonged  to  him.  He 
was  one  with  them  in  an  indissoluble  spiritual  soHdarity. 
He  bore  the  burden  of  their  sins  on  his  very  soul  in  the 
redemptive  travail  of  his  prophetic  mission.  And  that 
burden  was  breaking  his  heart.  He  saw  the  vision  of 
their  ideal  as  the  people  and  Kingdom  of  God.  The  word 
of  the  Lord,  the  message  of  repentance  and  salvation, 
burned  in  his  bones  like  a  consuming  fire.  It  was  a 
constant  agony,  a  daily  crucifixion, — this  mission  of  a 
prophet  to,  and  saviour  of,  his  people.  He  longed  to 
shake  off.  the  burden,  to  loosen  the  bonds  of  that  spiritual 
solidarity,  to  get  rid  of  the  burning  word  and  the  intoler- 
able mission.  He  would  stand  aloof  and  apart  from 
his  people  and  from  the  corridors  of  a  Khan,  a  hotel, 
watch  in  isolation  the  passing  procession  of  life.  Then 
he  could  unburden  his  heart  and  be  at  ease.  Then  he 
could  hurl  his  denunciations  with  a  kind  of  grim  satis- 
faction and  even  joy. 

This  is  the  most  subtle  and  persistent  temptation  which 
besets  the  preacher  upon  whose  soul  God  has  laid  the 
burden  of  the  social  gospel,  the  gospel  of  the  Kingdom. 
It  has  spoiled  and  wrecked  many  a  brave  and  zealous 
ministry  of  the  Word. 

The  minister  can  live  the  broadest,  deepest  and  most 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  115 

human  life  possible  to  any  man,  or  he  can  live  the  nar- 
rowest, most  professional  and  isolated  life  possible  to 
any  man.  His  vocation  offers  him  peculiar  opportunities 
in  the  one  direction  and  brings  him  peculiar  tempta- 
tions in  the  other.  All  depends  upon  whether  he  takes 
his  opportunities  and  realizes  them,  or  whether  he  yields 
to  his  temptations  and  becomes  their  victim.  Every  call- 
ing, trade  or  profession  has,  of  course,  its  strong  tendency 
towards  a  professional  or  class  consciousness.  It  natur- 
ally secretes  and  crystallizes  a  professional  or  commercial 
code  of  ethics,  a  system  of  taboo  and  etiquette  which  is 
likely  to  become  a  substitute  for  the  fundamental  and  vital 
principles  of  morality  and  righteousness.  But  still  more 
it  is  apt  to  confine  its  votaries  to  a  certain  limited  range 
of  human  associations.  The  business  man,  for  instance, 
knows  best,  and  sometimes  only,  those  with  whom  he 
daily  deals,  his  associates  in  trade,  industry  and  com- 
merce. The  herd  instinct  gets  him.  He  shares  their 
points  of  view  in  all  things,  he  thinks  their  thoughts, 
he  accepts  without  question  their  standards.  We  fault  the 
socialist  for  preaching  class  consciousness  to  the  work- 
ing masses,  the  proletariat.  But  there  is  no  class  con- 
sciousness which  in  intensity,  exclusiveness  and  petrify- 
ing power  can  compare  with  that  established  by  long  habit 
of  life  among  the  master  class.  That  class  acts  instinc- 
tively and  as  a  unit  on  almost  all  occasions  and  questions. 
In  this  narrow  realm  of  human  association,  the  average 
business  man  is  rigorously  shut.  He  meets  the  same  set 
of  men  in  the  office,  at  the  club  and  on  'change.  Even 
when  he  goes  into  society  for  recreation,  amusement  or 
human  intercourse,  he  still  meets  the  same  men  and  their 
women  who  are  of  the  same  type,  only  more  so ! 

Outside  this  narrow  circle  lie  the  great  crowds  of  the 
common  folk,  "the  people,"  the  plain  ordinary  men  and 
women  who  "love,  hate  and  have  children,"  who  toil  and 


116  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

play,  laugh  and  weep,  sin  and  struggle,  bear  burdens  and 
do  mean  and  noble  deeds,  that  is,  the  great  mass  which 
best  and  most  fully  expresses  our  common  humanity. 

But  when  the  average  business  or.  society  man  comes  to 
the  edge  of  his  narrow  circle  of  ordinary  associations,  he 
finds  a  great  gulf  fixed,  so  that  they  who  would  pass 
from  thence  to  him  can  not,  neither  can  he  really  reach 
or  touch  them.  The  mutual  antagonisms  and  suspicions 
between  employers  and  employees  and  the  system  of 
military  discipline  and  officialdom  sometimes  established 
in  business  or  industry  often  constitute  an  impassable 
wall  between  the  two  groups  on  either  side;  and  as  for 
social  distinctions,  they  often  turn  classes  into  castes. 
The  most  earnest  and  human,  those  who  most  desire 
to  get  into  sympathetic  human  touch  with  their  kind  of 
all  stations  and  positions,  often  stand  helpless  before  these 
barriers.  The  society  woman  serving  tea  to  the  shop  girl 
at  a  church  social,  with  an  officiously  patronizing  conde- 
scension and  the  "smile  that  won't  come  off,"  the  employer 
slapping  the  man  at  the  lathe  on  the  back  and  calling  him 
by  his  first  name,  trying  to  be  "hail  fellow  well  met" 
with  him — are  they  not  pathetic  exhibitions?  They  are 
earnest  and  well-intentioned,  perhaps  really  longing  and 
yearning  to  break  the  insulation  and  establish  the  real 
contact.  But  for  the  most  part  no  vital  spark  of  real 
human  fellowship  passes  from  one  side  to  the  other  and 
both  parties  are  conscious  of  the  failure.  The  relation 
is  strained  and  artificial  just  because  it  is  conscious.  To 
be  natural  and  human,  it  must  be  unconscious. 

Now  just  here  is  the  minister's  incomparable  advan- 
tage and  opportunity.  There  is  no  calling,  trade  or  pro- 
fession, save  possibly  the  physician's,  which  gives  such 
a  chance  to  the  right  kind  of  a  man  to  establish  natural, 
human  points  of  contact  and  sympathetic  understanding 
with  all  "sorts  and  conditions  of  men,"  as  the  Christian 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  117 

ministry  gives.  If  a  man  does  not  cease  to  be  a  man 
when  he  becomes  a  minister  (as  some,  alas,  do),  if  he 
keeps  his  naturalness  and  humanness,  if  he  does  not  let 
his  professionalism,  his  "cloth"  become  an  insulation, — 
social  distinctions,  class-consciousness  divisions,  and 
above  all  antagonisms  and  suspicions  melt  away  into  thin 
air  and  leave  him  an  unbroken  vision  of  a  common  hu- 
manity with  a  common  human  nature, — yes,  common 
sins,  needs,  joys  and  sorrows.  There  is  no  life,  save  as  I 
have  said,  that  possibly  of  the  physician,  which  can  so 
readily  break  through  all  limitations,  crusts  and  con- 
ventions and  so  naturally,  unconsciously  and  humanly, 
interpenetrate  and  intermingle  with  the  common  human 
mass  as  the  Hfe  of  the  minister  who  is  a  "human"  as 
well  as  a  "divine."  If  he  has  a  real  church  and  not  a 
mere  "ecclesiastical  social  club,"  he  has  gathered  about 
him,  and  ministers  to,  men  and  women  of  every  position 
and  kind.  His  pastoral  work  and  social  life  carry  him 
everywhere.  He  has  free  entree  upon  an  established  basis 
into  what  is  technically  called  "society"  and  he  knows 
both  its  occasional  and  many  finenesses  and  its  pitiful 
and  often  despicable  weaknesses.  He  associates  freely 
with  the  men  of  wealth,  of  power  and  position  in  the 
business  world.  He  knows  their  limitations  of  view  and 
of  judgment,  their  frequent  lack  of  Christian  vision  and 
spirit,  but  also  their  equally  frequent  nobility  of  mind 
and  temper  and  wistful  longings  and  aspirations  after  a 
more  Christian  and  human  social  and  industrial  order. 
He  knows  the  lowly, — sometimes  "holy  and  humble  men 
of  heart,"  sometimes  men  low  in  their  ideals,  bitter  in 
spirit,  unreasonable  and  cantankerous  in  mind,  passionate, 
poisoned  and  prejudiced  in  temper.  He  has  equal  access 
to  and  welcome  in  the  mansions  on  the  avenues  and  the 
tenements  in  the  slums.  And  if  he  be  a  true  minister 
of  Jesus  Christ,  imbued  with  the  mind  and  spirit  of  his 


118  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

Master,  you  can  discern  no  difference  in  his  attitude  of 
mind,  method  of  approach,  or  manner  of  conversation 
and  dealing  when  he  calls  in  either  home.  Like  his 
Master,  he  passes  from  grade  to  grade  in  society  without 
any  consciousness  of  the  transition.  Jesus  never  fawned ; 
Jesus  never  patronized.  To  Him  a  man  was  always  a 
man  and  nothing  more,  no  matter  what  his  position  or 
possessions,  and  thank  God,  never  anything  less,  no  mat- 
ter how  low  he  had  sunk  in  the  social  scale  or  conventional 
estimate.  He  approached  every  human  being  with  the 
same  delicate,  sensitive  and  instinctive  reverence  for  the 
infinite  value,  dignity  and  inherent  possibilities  of  the 
human  soul.    And  so  will  every  true  minister  of  Christ. 

The  congregations  under  my  care  as  Bishop,  whenever 
a  charge  becomes  vacant,  will  frequently  send  me  word, 
"Please  send  us  a  mixer."  The  word  has  become  an 
offense  unto  me.  It  suggests  some  sort  of  an  agricultural 
implement  for  getting  the  fertilizer  into  the  soil  or  a 
bread  machine  for  mixing  the  yeast  with  the  dough.  Too 
often  it  connotes  in  popular  understanding  a  somewhat 
loud-mouthed  and  vulgar  talker,  a  "slapper-on-the-back" 
and  "caller-by-first-names"  without  reserve,  manners  or 
dignity,  who  sometimies  by  such  methods  temporarily 
"gets"  the  man  of  the  street.  It  often  matters  not  to  some 
vestries  and  congregations  whether  their  minister  be 
intellectual  or  spiritual,  educated  or  godly,  so  he  be  a 
"mixer."  But  the  word  has  a  real  and  worthy  meaning 
land  I  know  of  no  exact  substitute  for  it.  The  true 
(prophet  and  preacher  must  be  a  "mixer."  He  must 
mingle  with  human  life,  all  the  human  life  he  can  touch 
and  reach — mingle  with  it  naturally  and  humanly  until 
he  has  a  sympathetic  understanding  of  it  all,  its  whole 
range  of  weakness  and  strength,  of  needs  and  sins  and 
sorrows,  as  well  as  of  virtues,  aspirations  and  joys.  The 
true  minister  must  feel  with  the  heathen  poet,  "I  count 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  119 

nothing  human  alien  to  me."  In  that  sense  of  the  word, 
Jesus  was  the  greatest  "mixer"  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
It  is  only  such  a  "mixer"  that  can  be  the  true  prophet.\ 
It  is  only  such  that  can  preach  the  larger  gospel,  the| 
gospel  of  the  Kingdom — ay,  it  is  only  such  that  can  safely 
be  intrusted  with  that  gospel. 

It  costs  much  to  be  such  a  "mixer."  It  cost  Jesus  the 
travail  of  His  life  and  in  the  end  His  cross.  To  enter 
into  the  solidarity  of  all  human  life,  to  bring  into  it  the 
vision  of  the  ideal,  the  will  and  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
and  all  that  vision  involves  for  the  personal  life  and  the 
social  order — and  then  to  meet  constantly  the  moral  stu- 
pidity and  spiritual  blindness  of  the  average  man  and 
woman  of  all  classes,  to  encounter  perpetually  their  utter 
lack  of  response  to  the  vision,  their  wilful  ignorance, — 
ay,  to  be  hurt  to  the  very  quick  of  his  soul  by  their 
selfishness,  meanness,  hardness,  sometimes  apparent  devil- 
ishness, — ah,  that  lays  upon  the  heart  a  constant  burden 
that  is  like  to  break  it ;  it  makes  the  minister  a  "partaker 
of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,"  the  travail  and  toil,  ay, 
the  agony  of  His  redemptive  work.  It  costs  to  be  a  true 
prophet  of  the  Kingdom.    But  it  is  worth  the  cost. 

There  is  the  opportunity  of  the  minister  to  live  the 
widest,  deepest,  humanest  life  possible  to  a  man. 

But  there  on  the  other  side  is  his  temptation  to  live  the 
narrowest,  shallowest,  most  artificial  and  exclusive  of 
lives. 

He  may  become  the  professional  ecclesiastic,  the  "man 
of  the  cloth,"  and  sometimes  the  "cloth-man"  with  no 
blood  in  him,  red  or  blue;  the  automaton  who  goes 
through  the  motions  of  pious  proprieties  and  etiquette  and 
the  conventional  round  of  ecclesiastical  performances  and 
deals  in  cant  phrases ;  the  kind  that  is  usually  caricatured 
on  the  stage  and  in  cheap  novels.  But  he  is  too  obvious 
a  figure  to  need  much  serious  warning  against  him. 


120         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

But  there  is  also  the  minister  who  habitually  views 
life,  not  from  the  center  of  the~arena,  but  from  the  side 
lines,  whether  from  the  boxes  or  the  bleachers.  He  has 
no  first-hand  knowledge  or  experience  of  the  game  or 
conflict  by  actual  participation  therein  or  by  personal 
contact  and  association  with  the  players  and  contestants. 
He  sits  among  the  idle  spectators,  and  generally  in  a 
position,  either  deliberately  or  unconsciously  chosen, 
which  gives  him  but  partial  views,  distorted,  out  of  the 
perspective  of  the  whole.  Like  Balaam,  the  hired  prophet, 
he  takes  his  stand  at  the  bidding  of  his  patrons,  now  on 
this  point  of  view  and  now  on  that,  when  he  may  see  but 
the  "uttermost  part  of  the  people"  but  cannot  see  them 
all — that  he  may  curse  those  he  sees  with  a  right  good 
conscience.  For  he  is  a  curser  by  profession.  That  is 
the  rnain  business  of  social  critics  who  pose  as  prophets 
of  the  social  message — it  can  hardly  be  called  a  social 
gospel  for  it  consists  chiefly  not  in  good  news,  the  vision 
of  a  new,  ideal  order,  but  in  the  denunciation  of  the 
existing  system.  It  may  be  the  proletariat  or  the  plu- 
tocracy which  is  the  object  of  their  wrath.  In  the  present 
mood  of  extreme  conservatism  and  reaction  which  so 
largely  possesses  American  business  and  politics  today, 
when  the  campaign  for  the  open  shop  is  on  (which 
appears  to  many  but  a  slightly  camouflaged  movement  for 
the  breaking  up  of  all  labor  organizations,  reducing  labof 
to  a  horde  of  helpless  individuals  at  the  mercy  and  dicta- 
tion of  the  employing  class  and  crushing  all  labor's  ambi- 
tions and  aspirations,  good,  bad  or  indifferent),  at  such  a 
moment  great  are  the  rewards  of  divination  for  the  pro- 
fessional cursers  of  the  masses.  Fulminate  vigorously 
against  them  from  your  pulpit  (you  can  do  it  safely,  for 
they  probably  have  few  or  no  representatives  in  your 
pews),  and  you  will  have  your  sermons  published  and 
widely  circulated,  perhaps  new  pews  rented  at  higher 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  121 

prices,  an  increase  of  your  congregation  by  new  attend- 
ants from  among  "the  best  people";  your  finances  will 
prosper,  possibly  your  salary  be  raised  or  a  call  will 
come  to  a  "larger  field,"  that  is,  to  a  wealthier  and  more 
fashionable  "ecclesiastical  club"  which  pays  a  higher 
salary.  You  may  even  be  invited  to  dinner  in  a  magnate's 
mansion,  put  your  feet  under  his  mahogany  above  the 
salt,  grow  familiar  with  the  "seats  of  the  mighty"  and 
get  "entree"  to  the  most  exclusive  circles  of  financial 
society.  There  are  Balaams  who  go  further  and  deliber- 
ately "hire  out"  as  regular  diviners  and  cursers  to  the 
Balaks  of  political  campaign  committees  or  manufactur- 
ers' associations. 

But  there  are  also  Balaams  who  are,  sometimes  con- 
sciously, but  generally  unconsciously,  in  the  service  of 
King  Demos.  To  be  sure,  Demos  has  few  shekels  to 
give  and  no  fat  positions.  But  he  has  flattery,  reputation 
and  glory  to  bestow.  The  professional  curser  of  the 
plutocracy  stands  out  in  the  limelight  as  a  tribune  of  the 
people,  a  champion  of  the  oppressed,  a  mighty  warrior 
and  captain  in  the  warfare  for  justice  and  righteousness. 
And  subtler  than  all  these  coarser  rewards  of  divination, 
more  appealing  to  more  refined  and  earnest  souls,  is  the 
easement  of  conscience,  the  unburdening  of  the  heart, 
the  satisfying  sense  of  having  fulfilled  one's  whole  mis- 
sion as  a  prophet  of  the  social  gospel  in  the  mere  utter- 
ance of  denunciations. 

Unfortunately  the  minister's  calling  lends  itself  all  too 
readily  to  isolation  from  the  main  current  of  the  common 
life.  The  minister  can  easily  make  his  study  his  castle. 
Securely  fortified  there,  he  can  select  such  intellectual 
pabulum,  such  books  and  current  literature  as  best  agree 
with  his  mental  digestion  and  tastes,  perhaps  his  preju- 
dices, and  when  he  does  venture  out,  he  can  choose 
such  human  associations  as  are  most  agreeable  and  con- 


122  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

genial.  He  sets  himself  upon  his  heights  of  Baal  whence 
he  can  see  but  ''the  utmost  part  of  the  people,"  the 
autocracy  of  the  plutocrats  and  their  sins;  he  can  not 
see  all  the  people,  especially  the  proletariat  and  their  sins, 
and  then  proceeds  to  conjure  with  his  divinations.  He 
forges  his  thunderbolts  during  the  week  in  his  study,  and 
then  he  launches  them  from  the  absolutely  impregnable 
citadel  of  the  pulpit.  He  knows  there  can  be  no  return 
fire  as  there  is  in  the  open  forum.  There  is  no  answering 
back  to  the  pulpit  except  according  to  the  book  as  in  the 
Episcopal  Church.  His  weekly  course  is  a  beaten  path 
between  the  study  and  the  pulpit.  He  knows  not  the  big 
highways  of  life  where  all  the  people  travel.  And  the 
burden  and  sum  of  his  message  are  apt  to  be  criticism, 
denunciation,  cursing.  There  is  no  positive  vision  of  a 
nobler  order,  no  setting  forth  of  the  constructive  princi- 
ples of  that  order  and  consequently  no  inspiration  to  high 
endeavor.  No  one  really  looks  to  him  for  light  and  lead- 
ing, but  only  heat  and  thunder.  At  best  he  is  simply  a 
shrieking  whistle  or  an  exploding  safety  valve  which  lets 
off  the  surcharge  of  social  wrath,  that  otherwise  might 
j  burst  the  boiler.  The  prophet  of  the  Kingdom  degenerates 
^into  a  common  scold,  and  bye  and  bye  his  people  get 
i  tired  of  him  and  finally  get  rid  of  him.  Forthwith  he 
poses  as  a  martyr  along  with  the  prophets  of  old.  He 
even  thinks  he  is  sharing  the  cross  of  His  Master.  God 
forbid  that  I  should  imply  or  suggest  that  all  modern 
martyrs  and  cross-bearers  are  like  this.  There  are  plenty 
of  them  who  are  genuine,  and  the  conflict  now  imminent 
and  deepening  will  doubtless  call  for  more.  But  some 
at  least  who  reckon  themselves  in  their  ranks  are  simply 
public  nuisances  whom  the  public  has  finally  disposed  of. 
Such  is  the  prophet  of  the  Kingdom  who  degenerates 
into  the  mere  critic,  the  problem  novelist,  the  hotel  guest 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  123 

who  views  and  gibes  at  the  passing  procession  of  hfe 
but  takes  no  part  therein,  the  common  scold. 

Another  temptation  of  the  prophet  is  to  play  the  role  ^ 
of  the  practical  social  reformer.  I  do  not  mean  that  the 
prophet  should  never  give  his  influence  or  lend  a  hand 
to  such  practical  social  reform  as  commends  itself  to  his 
judgment  when  such  reform  is  actually  inaugurated.  But 
the  preacher  or  prophet  is  generally  ill-fitted  to  design 
the  machinery  itself  or  even  run  it,  and  when  he  attempts 
it,  he  generally  makes  a  mess  of  it.  And  further,  when 
he  devotes  himself  entirely  to  such  work  and  makes  the 
burden  of  his  message  the  proclamation  of  some  partic- 
ular scheme  of  social  reorganization,  becomes  the  preach- 
er of  a  nostrum  or  panacea,  he  has  left  the  center  of 
the  situation  where  all  the  springs  of  inspiration  lie 
under  his  hand  and  lost  himself  in  "the  details  of  the 
periphery,"  as  I  heard  it  once  phrased.  He  has  deserted 
the  power-house  to  run  a  lathe  in  the  factory.  He  has 
abandoned  his  proper  sphere,  the  sphere  of  spiritual  dyna- 
mics, to  engage  in  social  mechanics. 

The  temptation  is  besetting  and  alluring.  The  course 
it  beckons  to  looks  so  rational  and  reasonable.  It  calls 
from  creeds  to  deeds,  from  words  to  action.  Are  we 
forever  to  be  men  of  mere  speech?  Shall  the  whole 
output  of  our  lives  be  simply  a  mass  of  words  that  fade 
quickly,  if  not  instantly,  out  of  the  memories  and  minds 
of  our  few  hearers?  Can  we  not,  and  shall  we  not,  do 
something  to  leave  our  indelible  mark,  our  sign  manual, 
upon  the  changing  fabric  of  the  social  order  ? 

There  are  many  who  have  yielded  to  the  temptation. 
There  have  been  estabHshed  here  and  there  labor 
churches,  single  tax  churches,  socialist  churches,  and  the 
like,  and  I  presume  now  we  shall  have  churches  of  the 
Holy  Industrial  Democracy. 

But  if  you  will  follow  the  history  of  these  cases  you 


124         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

will  find  that  almost  invariably  such  ministers  gradually 
fail  in  spiritual  power  and  leading  among  the  people,  and 
more  than  that,  many,  if  not  most,  of  them  finally  lose 
their  personal  Christian  faith,  their  vision  and  grasp  of 
spiritual  realities,  and  ultimately  desert  the  ministry 
altogether  for  the  field  of  practical  politics  or  social 
agitation. 

May  I  be  pardoned  a  personal  allusion  by  way  of  illus- 
tration? I  know  full  well  the  pressure  of  this  temptation 
to  desert  the  post  of  the  prophet  and  devote  oneself  to  the 
tasks  of  the  practical  social  reformer.  For  am  I  not  a 
single  taxer,  a  convinced  disciple  of  Henry  George?  If 
you  have  met  any  of  the  species,  you  know  the  type.  No 
movement  for  social  reform,  not  even  the  most  idealistic 
form  of  socialism,  has  at  its  heart  a  more  consuming 
moral  passion,  or  before  its  eyes  a  fairer,  more  fascinating 
and  inspiring  vision  of  a  redeemed  and  ideal  society 
than  the  single  tax  movement.  Consequently  its  disciples 
are  votaries  and  devotees,  inspired  with  the  spirit  of 
prophets  and  martyrs.  To  many  of  them  single  tax  has 
become  a  religion,  and  the  only  religion  they  know. 
Whether  there  be  a  God  or  no  they  may  not  be  sure, 
but  they  are  sure  that  Henny  George  is  His  prophet, 
God  or  no  God. 

Consequently  the  single  taxer  is  apt  to  be  the  most 
intense  if  niot  fanatical  of  all  reformers,  insistent  and 
persistent  in  season  and  out  of  season.  Let  him  once 
get  hold  of  you  and,  like  the  ancient  mariner  with  the 
hurrying  wedding  guest,  he  fixes  you  with  his  glitter- 
ing eye  until  he  has  told  his  whole  tale.  He  simply 
knows  that  he  has,  if  not  the  panacea  for  "all  the  ills 
flesh  is  heir  to,"  even  the  measles,  at  least  the  basic 
principle  upon  which  alone  any  equitable  distribution 
of  wealth,  the  products  of  labor  and  industry,  can  be 
established  and  consequently  the  primary  means  for 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  125 

the  relief  of  the  oppressed,  the  abolition  of  injustice 
and  the  opening  of  opportunity  to  the  dispossessed. 
If  his  theory  be  not  the  complete  solution  of  all  prob- 
lems, it  can  at  least  untie  the  knot  in  the  end  of  the 
string  which  must  be  untied  before  any  of  the  knots 
higher  up  can  be  dealt  with. 

Now  in  many  of  these  convictions  I  share  to  a 
large  degree.  And  there  come  in  my  ministry  moments 
of  depression  and  despondency,  when  the  Church 
seems  so  slow  and  stupid,  so  torpid  and  blind — just  a 
great  cumbrous,  dead  ecclesiastical  machine; — and  its 
saints  look  like  Pharisees  and  scribes,  absorbed  in 
dogmatisms  and  formalities,  or  else  narrow,  wooden' 
personal  pieties  and  proprieties,  questions  of  etiquette 
and  good  form  rather  than  of  real  righteousness  and 
vital  godliness,  and  particularly  utterly  oblivious  to 
the  clamant  wrongs  and  sins  of  society  and  utterly 
unconscious  of,  if  not  hostile  to,  Christ's  commanding 
vision  of  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  a  celestial  civilization 
upon  earth.  I  say  there  come  these  moments  of  de- 
pression and  despondency  when  I  am  sorely  tempted 
to  abandon  the  Church  and  her  ministry  and  fling 
myself  with  whatever  little  ability  and  energy  I  may 
have  into  this  particular  practical  social  reform.  At 
least  there  I  might  do  something  instead  of  merely 
spending  my  very  soul  in  words,  futile  and  fruitless 
exhortations,  pointing  to  visions  w^hich  nobody  sees 
but  the  visionary,  *'the  mad  seer."  I  might  give  a 
little  push  towards  the  goal  along  a  practicable  and 
open  path.  I  might  make  some  definite  impression, 
however  small,  upon  the  structure  of  society,  touch, 
however  slightly,  somewhere  the  plastic  and  changing 
order  towards  a  closer  conformity  to  the  ideal  of  the 
Kingdom.  I  am  sure  that  temptation  comes  in 
greater  or  less  degree  to  every  minister  who  has  the 


126         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

social  vision,  whatever  be  his  particular  conception 
of  practical  reform,  and  many,  as  we  have  seen,  yield 
to  it.  Perhaps  therefore  my  own  experience  and 
method  of  dealing  with  that  experience  may  be  of  some 
slight  avail  to  such  tempted  ones.  I  have  always  in 
such  moments  of  despondency  tried  to  bring  myself 
resolutely  back  to  a  sense  of  my  "high  calling  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus."  I  am  called  to  be  a  prophet,  not 
a  mere  reformer,  and  the  objective  of  the  prophet  is 
regeneration — a  new  heart,  miind,  spirit  and  will  in 
men  and  society,  not  simply  a  new  form  and  shape  for 
the  structure  of  the  social  order.  I  must  deal  with 
motives,  not  methods ;  principles,  not  policies ;  spiritual 
dynamics,  not  merely  economic  mechanics.  And  there- 
fore while  on  the  public  platform  I  have  always  claimed 
my  full  right  and  liberty  as  a  man,  and  as  one  who 
has  made  some  slight  study  of  practical  economic  and 
social  problem's,  to  expound  and  commend  my  particu- 
lar method  of  reform,  I  have  never  preached  the  single 
tax  from  a  Christian  pulpit.  I  do  not  find  it  set  forth 
as  an  essential  part  of  that  Gospel  of  which  I  am 
appointed  a  steward.  In  the  pulpit  I  stand  as  a 
■messenger  and  interpreter  of  God,  His  will  and  His 
word,  and  an  ambassador  of  Christ,  a  herald  of  His 
Kingdom.  There  I  must  plead  and  strive  with  the 
souls  of  men,  ay,  agonize  and  cry  aloud,  **'if  that  I 
may  by  any  means"  sensitize  their  torpid  and  callous 
consciences,  kindle  in  cold  and  indifferent  hearts  a 
consuming  passion  for  the  largest  righteousness,  open 
blind  eyes  to  Christ's  vision  of  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
upon  earth,  and  then  send  them  out  to  find  it,  and 
build  it,  with  the  conviction  that  inspired  the  crusa- 
ders— "It  is  the  will  of  God."  One  may  find  his  way 
by  the  radical  reforms  of  socialism,  or  single  tax,  an- 
other by  what  may  seem  to  him  the  more  reasonable 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  127 

and  practicable  method  of  gradual  amelioration  of 
social  conditions.  But  all  shall  be  of  one  mind,  one 
spirit  and  one  will,  pressing  towards  the  goal  of  the 
Kingdom.  The  Church  and  the  pulpit  must  be  the 
power-house  and  dynamo,  the  preacher  the  fireman  if 
not  the  engineer,  and  then  let  economic  experts,  polit- 
ical and  social  technicians  design  and  run  the  lathes  in 
the  factory  that  shall  turn  out  the  tools  and  forms  for 
rebuilding  society. 

To  sum  up  the  distinction  between  the  social  re- 
former and  the  prophet: 

The  prophet  must  see  whole  and  steady.  He  must 
not  so  lose  himself  among  the  trees  that  he  fails  to  see 
the  forest.  He  must  not  be  so  absorbed  in  the  details 
of  practical  reforms  that  he  loses  vision  of  the  King- 
dom. He  must  stand  with  and  follow  His  Master, 
and,  in  all  the  complications  of  the  problems  that  con- 
front us,  share  His  "view  from  above  and  approach 
from  within."  I  can  not  repeat  it  too  often.  His  I 
concern  is  with  motives,  not  methods;  principles,] 
not  policies;  dynamics,  not  mechanics.  Above  all,  he' 
must  keep  alive  and  paramount  in  his  own  heart 
and  the  hearts  of  his  people  that  which  the  social 
reformer  so  often  loses  but  which  is  the  very 
Divine  energy  and  guarantee  of  the  whole  process, 
without  which  it  must  eventually  fail  or  end  in  a  mere 
pig^s  paradise  of  physical  comfort  and  well-being  instead 
of  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  earth, — viz.,  faith  in  God. 
He  must  preach  and  proclaim  a  living  God — a  God  who 
cares,  a  God  who  wills,  ay,  a  God  who  labors  and  strives 
and  agonizes  together  with  us  in  and  through  all  our 
human  aspirations 'arid  struggles,  not  only  to  bring  each 
one  of  us  to  the  "perfect  man,  the  measure  of  the  stature 
of  the  fullness  of  Christ,"  but  to  bring  the  whole  travail- 
ing and  groaning  creation  to  that  new  birth,  described 


128  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

in  such  mysterious  terms,  "the  manifestation  of  the  Sons 
of  God,"  "the  glorious  Hberty  of  the  children  of  God," 
"the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed," — which  can  mean 
nought  less  than  Christ's  vision  of  the  Kingdom.  To  get 
men  to  trust  in  such  a  God,  to  rest,  refresh  and  recreate 
themselves  in  Him  in  their  moments  of  despondency  and 
despair,  to  share  His  purposes  and  His  will  of  righteous- 
ness and  to  labor  unceasingly  without  haste  and  without 
waste  for  those  purposes  and  that  will  as  fellow  workers 
with  God,  absolutely  sure  of  the  final  issue,  whatever  the 
present  failure,  because  He  is  with  them, — that  is  the 
chief  function  of  the  prophet  in  the  regeneration  of 
society  and  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom.  It  may 
often  seem  a  slow,  indirect  and  unpractical  function 
beside  the  direct,  immediate  and  palpable  aims,  efforts  and 
sometimes  results  of  the  social  reformer.  But  it  deals 
with  the  very  vital  spring  and  dynamic  of  the  whole  strug- 
gle and  process  without  which  they  must  lose  their  sus- 
taining inspiration,  their  hope,  and  above  all,  their  ideal. 

So  much  for  the  critic  and  the  reformer  as  contrasted 
with  the  prophet.  Now  what  is  the  prophet  and  what  is 
his  function  ?  I  have  already  suggested  both  by  compari- 
son. I  can  only  in  closing  sum  up  these  suggestions.  He 
cannot  be  a  spectator  on  the  side  lines — a  hotel  guest  who 
jibes  at  the  passing  procession  of  life  in  the  corridors — a 
mere  social  critic,  problem-novelist — least  of  all  a  com- 
mon scold.  He  must  realize  his  oneness  in  the  solidarity 
of  all  that  is  human.  He  must  not  be  content  to  bestow 
merely  his  pity  upon  the  sufferings  of  the  oppressed,  nor 
his  scorn  and  denunciations  upon  the  sins  of  the  oppres- 
sors. He  must  be  inspired  by  compassion,  sympathy  in 
the  full  deep  sense  of  those  words,  so  commonly  used  sup- 
erficially. Com-passion,  sym-pathy, — those  pregnant  Latin 
and  Greek  words, — they  both  mean  literally,  suffering 
together,  enduring  together,  sharing  in  a  common  travail 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  129 

of  pain  and  agony.  Compassion — sympathy — in  this  full- 
est and  deepest  sense — they  are  the  distinguishing  note  of 
the  Christian's  God,  the  object  of  his  faith  and  worship. 
The  gods  of  Olympus  may  sit  on  their  high  peaks  of 
isolation  and  gaze  with  indifference  or  "inextinguishable 
laughter"  upon  the  toil  and  travail,  the  sins  and  the  sor- 
rows of  humanity.  But  the  very  meaning  of  the  incarna-| 
tion  is  that  our  God  has  forever  identified  Himself  with 
all  humanity.  He  became  not  merely  "a  man"  but  Man ; 
He  entered  into  the  soHdarity  of  humanity;  He  knew  our 
griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows  and  bore  our  sins;  He 
took  upon  Himself  in  His  work  of  redemption  the  whole 
crushing  burden  of  human  sin  and  its  consequent  suffer- 
ing. And  that  vision  of  God  is  older  than  the  Gospels. 
It  is  the  Great  Unknown  who  sings  of  his  God,  "For  He 
said,  'Surely  they  are  my  people,  children  that  will  not 
lie,'  so  He  was  their  Saviour.  In  all  their  affliction  He 
was  afflicted  and  the  angel  of  His  presence  saved  them; 
in  His  love  and  in  His  pity  He  redeemed  them ;  and  He 
bare  them  and  carried  them  all  the  days  of  old."  Mr. 
H.  G.  Wells  started  out  to  discover  a  new  God  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  unsatisfactory  God,  particularly  the  Trinity 
of  the  Christian  faith.  He  did  the  job  to  his  own  satis- 
faction in  "God,  the  Invisible  King"  and  "The  Undying 
Fire."  He  found  a  compassionate  God,  a  champion  God, 
a  sharer  in  all  the  common  aspiration  and  struggle,  ay, 
the  travail  and  toil  of  human  progress.  He  seems  to  me 
simply  to  have  rediscovered  the  Second  and  Third  Per- 
sons of  the  orthodox  Trinity  but  has  not  had  the  courage 
and  vision  to  take  the  daring  leap  of  Christian  faith  and 
identify  this  companion  God,  this  God  of  compassion  and 
sympathy,  with  the  First  Person,  the  Father,  the  "Veiled 
Presence"  as  the  heart  of  all  things.  We  affirm  that  it  is 
this  God  who  is  the  heart  and  soul  of  the  universe.  And 
the   prophet,  the  interpreter   of   such  a   God  must  be 


130         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

godly, — that  is,  Godlike.  Not  otherwise  can  he  speak  for, 
interpret  or  reveal  Him  to  men.  He  can  not  stand  aloof 
from  human  Hfe  and  ease  his  heart  in  criticism  and  de- 
nunciation. He  must  know  all  life  from  the  inside.  He 
must,  so  far  as  he  can,  enter  completely  into  the  heart 
of  all  human  experience.  He  must,  like  his  Master,  know 
the  griefs,  carry  the  sorrows  and  bear  the  sins  of  his 
people — ay,  those  sins  must  become  his  distress  and 
agony,  not  simply  the  easy  objects  of  his  scorn  and  wrath 
and  the  targets  of  his  denunciations.  While  he  may 
strive  with  his  fiery  invectives  to  sting  and  burn  callous 
consciences  into  sensitiveness,  he  must  still  love  the  sinner 
while  he  hates  the  sin.  The  spiritual  havoc  and  ruin  in 
the  souls  of  the  selfish,  greedy,  hard  oppressors  of  society 
must  be  to  him  as  great  a  grief  as  the  misery  and  suffer- 
ing of  the  oppressed,  and  that  is  impossible  to  the  mere 
critic  and  scold. 

^  Ah,  it  costs  to  be  the  prophet  of  such  a  God,  the 
God  of  com-passion  and  sym-pathy,  the  champion  and 
companion  God,  the  Saviour  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ — it 
costs  infinitely.  The  burden  of  the  Lord  laid  upon  the 
spirit  of  His  servant  is  sometimes  a  heart-breaking,  soul- 
crushing  burden.  But  it  is  only  by  the  travail  and  toil  of 
such  vicarious  suffering  that  either  souls  can  be  saved  or 
society  redeemed  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  set  up  on 
the  earth. 

And  the  prophet  can  not  be  a  mere  social  reformer.  As 
I  have  said  before,  the  business  of  the  reformer  is  re- 
formation, re-shaping.  His  concern  is  with  the  necessary 
changes  in  the  outward  fabric  and  order  of  society,  if 
it  is  to  function  smoothly  and  effectively.  The  business 
of  the  prophet  is  regeneration,  the  change  in  the  spirit 
of  society  if  it  is  to  function  justly  and  righteously.  The 
one  manipulates  the  "details  of  the  periphery,"  the  tech- 
nique and  mechanics  of  the  process.     The  other  speaks 


Critic — Reformer — ^Prophet  131 

to  heart,  conscience  and  will,  the  springs  and  sources  of 
spiritual  dynamics. 

The  business  of  the  reformer  is  the  practical  adminis- 
tration and  execution  of  laws  and  statutes,  methods  and 
systems.  The  business  of  the  prophet  is  the  spiritual, 
interpretation  and  inspiration  of  the  whole  process.  His 
supreme  function  is  vision.  The  prophet  is  the  seer.  He 
must  see  things  whole  and  see  them  steady  in  the  light 
of  the  eternal  and  make  others  see  his  vision.  For 
"where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish." 

The  ordinary  reformer  naturally  and  frequently  degen- 
erates into  a  confirmed  materialist.  There  is  no  more 
sodden  materialism,  for  example,  than  that  which  char- 
acterizes much  of  our  popular  socialism.  The  dynamic  it 
trusts  to  is  economic  determinism.  The  goal  is  a  state  of 
society  where  everybody  shall  have  plenty  to  eat  and  to 
drink  and  to  wear,  a  mansion  on  the  avenue  to  live  in, 
a  limousine  to  ride  in  and  a  free  theater  to  go  to. 

The  prophet  sees  the  ideal  society  as  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  in  this  present  world,  where  the  will  of  God  is 
done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven,  where  His  justice  and 
righteousness  reign  and  His  law  of  love  has  forever  abol- 
ished the  law  of  greed  and  selfishness. 

Above  all  must  the  prophet  keep  before  men  the  vision 
of  God, — not  the  serene  transcendent  God  of  the  old 
theology,  who  sent  His  Son  into  the  arena  of  the  human 
struggle  and  Himself  stayed  at  home  in  the  security  and 
isolation  of  heaven,  viewing  from  the  far  impregnability 
of  the  celestial  ramparts  the  swaying  of  the  strife  and  the 
agony  of  the  combatants — but  the  imminent  champion, 
companion  God,  whom  Mr.  Wells  has  tried  to  interpret 
to  us  and  succeeded  so  partially,  whom  Isaiah  pictured 
long  ago,  the  conqueror  from  Edom  with  garments  dyed 
red  in  the  blood  of  the  conflict,  the  hero-God,  passionate 
and   compassionate,   aspiring   and   inspiring,   who   leads 


132         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

His  hosts  to  battle  and  shares  it  with  them — ay,  the  God 
within  the  soul,  the  unfailing  spring  of  inexhaustible 
strength,  unquenchable  hope  and  indefatigable  patience, 
"the  undying  Fire." 

If  we  are  to  make  men  see  the  vision  of  such  a  God, 
it  may  be  necessary  to  give  up  some  of  our  old-fashioned 
orthodox  conceptions  of  an  immediate  and  magical  omni- 
potence. But  the  gain  in  the  sense  of  Divine  sympathy 
and  inspiration,  and  the  consciousness  of  Divine  indwell- 
ing and  strength  is  worth  the  small  sacrifice  of  formal 
orthodoxy.  And  the  unshakeable  trust,  begotten  of  that 
consciousness  of  a  companion  and  champion  God,  in  the 
ultimate  and  complete  triumph  of  righteousness  and  love, 
gives  a  clearer,  more  reasonable  and  nobler  conception 
of  moral  omnipotence,  the  only  kind  of  omnipotence  that 
can  deal  with  the  free  but  rebellious  wills  of  His  children. 

I  do  not  see  how  the  godless  reformer  can  keep  up  the 
fight  for  social  justice  and  righteousness.  H  the  whole 
conflict  is  but  a  chaotic  clash  of  blind  forces  and  equally 
blind  human  greeds  and  passions,  there  is  no  hope  of 
ultimate  victory  and  no  ground  for  the  warrior  to  stand 
on.  But  if  each  individual  soldier  in  his  small  corner  of 
the  field  can  realize  that  he  is  a  member  of  an  innumer- 
able army  with  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts  as  Captain  and 
Leader,  if  he  can  sense  his  small  and  particular  struggle 
as  but  a  skirmish  in  God^s  eternal  warfare  with  the  evil, 
if  he  can  believe  that  behind  all  this  apparently  chaotic 
conflict  is  a  Divine  plan  of  campaign,  and  sustaining  it, 
the  power  of  a  moral  omnipotence,  then  he  can  fling  him- 
self into  the  fight  with  the  crusader's  shout,  "It  is  the  will 
of  God." 

Then  he  can  "endure  as  seeing  Him  that  is  invisible." 
No  failure  can  break  his  ultimate  and  confident  hope. 
"Truth  may  lose  many  a  battle  but  never  a  campaign." 
No  accumulation  of  disappointments  can  wear  out  his 


Critic — Reformer — Prophet  133 

persistent  patience.  He  fights  with  the  "elan"  of  certain 
victory.  "For  this  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the 
world — even  our  faith."  And  the  paramount  function  of 
the  prophet  is  to  inspire  in  men  everywhere  that  faith. 


VII 
Prophet  and  Priest 

TWO  figures  stand  out  in  sharp  contrast  and  often 
in  mutual  antagonism  on  the  pages  of  the  Old 
Testament.  As  I  said  in  my  first  lecture,  they 
are  reconciled  in  the  ideal  of  the  Christian  Church  as  set 
forth  on  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament.  They  must 
be  reconciled  in  the  practical  work  of  the  Christian 
Church  today,  if  she  is  to  fulfill  her  full  mission,  and 
they  must  also  be  reconciled  in  the  individual  ministry 
of  each  of  us  if  he  is  to  ''make  full  proof  of  his  ministry." 

Those  two  figures  are  the  prophet  and  the  priest.  At 
the  risk  of  some  repetition  of  what  I  have  already  said 
in  my  first  lecture,  let  us  glance  briefly  at  the  two  figures, 
their  missions,  methods,  points  of  view  and  the  mind  or 
spirit  which  inspires  them,  respectively. 

The  prophet  is  an  individualist  with  a  largely  social 
mission  and  message.  That  is,  he  has  an  individualistic 
background  with  a  social  outlook. 

He  stands  alone  with  God.  He  receives  his  message, 
not  by  tradition  or  authority,  but  by  direct  inspiration. 
The  burden  of  the  Lord  is  laid  upon  him.  The  Word 
of  the  Lord  burns  in  his  bones  like  fire.  He  is  not  an 
ofificial  of  an  institution.  He  is  a  man  of  God.  He  has 
a  mission  from  the  Lord  but  no  commission  from  the 
Church.  Whenever  and  wherever  the  Divine  afflatus  falls 
upon  him,  then  and  there  he  speaks  "as  the  spirit  gives 
him  utterance." 

Yet,  as  I  have  said,  his  outlook  is  social  though  his 
background  be  individualistic.     He  rarely  deals  with  the 

134 


Prophet  and  Priest  135 

individual  soul,  except  it  be  to  convict  the  conscience  of 
a  guilty  king  whose  sin  involves  the  whole  social  fabric. 
His  message  is  chiefly  to  society — the  nation,  the  church, 
the  world.  His  commanding  vision  is  a  redeemed  peo- 
ple, not  a  saved  soul  here  and  there — a  regenerate  society, 
and  ultimately  a  world  wherein  the  will  of  God  shall  be 
done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven, — that  is  "the  Kingdom 
of  God." 

His  aim  is  reconstruction  but  he  frequently  begins  with 
destruction.  His  motto  is,  "Behold,  I  make  all  things 
new."  He  has  little  respect  or  concern  for  the  old, 
especially  as  crystallized  in  custom  or  tradition.  He 
recks  little  of  human  authority  because  he  is  conscious 
of  a  Divine  authority.  He  is  often  the  enemy  of  the 
settled  order  or  accepted  disorder  of  society.  He  turns 
the  world  upside  down  because  to  him  it  is  wrong-side 
up.  He  is  apt  to  be  more  of  a  revolutionist  than  an 
evolutionist.  Progress  to  him  proceeds  by  cataclysms  or 
seismic  convulsions  rather  than  by  the  slow  orderly  pro- 
cess of  gradual  substitution  and  edification.  The  rotten 
bridge  must  be  destroyed  and  a  brand  new  one  built  in 
its  place,  rather  than  the  old  one  reconstructed  bit  by  bit 
without  interrupting  traffic.  He  has  little  concern  for 
and  often  little  conception  of  the  vital  principle  of  historic 
continuity. 

Yes,  the  prophet  has  his  natural  limitations,  the 
"defects  of  his  virtues." 

But  he  is  an  absolutely  indispensable  element  in  the 
life  of  society  and  the  soul.  An  old  theological  professor 
once  said,  "Heretics  are  the  salt  of  the  church,  but  it 
requires  so  much  vitality  to  be  a  heretic  and  alas,  I  have 
not  enough  vitality  left  to  be  an  effective  heretic."  Even 
so,  prophets  are  the  salt  of  society.  Without  them  society 
would  stagnate  and  rot,  at  least  it  would  become  petri- 
fied and  paralyzed,  "fixed  in  an  eternal  state." 


136         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

Vitality,  power,  inspiration,  vision — these  are  the  qual- 
ities and  the  gifts  of  the  prophet.  He  is  the  channel  of 
ever  new  and  fresh  influxes  from  on  high,  and  these  are 
the  sources  and  springs  of  all  progress  and  growth. 

The  priest  has  a  social  background  and  frequently  a 
more  or  less  individualistic  mission. 

He  is  an  official  of  an  institution,  the  ecclesiastical 
organization.  He  conforms  to  its  standards.  He  accepts 
and  wields  its  authority.  He  runs  its  machinery.  He  is 
bound  fast  in  historic  continuity  to  the  past  by  a  nexus 
of  tradition  and  custom.  These  bonds  may  be  made 
either  living  arteries  that  carry  down  the  moral  and 
spiritual  values  of  the  past,  the  inspiration  and  vitality 
of  its  experience,  or  dead  ligatures  that  fetter  all  rightful 
freedom. 

The  priest's  message  is  the  message  of  a  corporate 
authority.  It  is  the  teaching  and  judgment  of  the  Church 
which  commissions  him.  Again  that  message  may  be 
interpreted  as  the  expression  and  crystallization  of  the 
common  spiritual  consciousness  and  conscience  of  the 
body  of  believers,  the  communion  of  the  saints,  the  sum- 
mary of  the  revelations  that  have  come  through  the  life 
and  experience  of  the  Church.  As  such  it  may  become  at 
once  the  stimulus  of  the  torpid  conscience  and  soul  of 
the  individual  believer  and  also  the  corrective  of  the 
idiosyncracies  of  his  one-sided  and  partial  moral  judg- 
ments and  spiritual  experience,  the  errors  of  the  personal 
equation.  Or  that  message  may  be  made  hard  and  fast 
dogma  and  arbitrary  authority  which  suppress  the  free- 
dom of  the  reason  and  the  liberty  of  conscience. 

And  the  priest's  mission  was  largely  to  persons  instead 
of  to  crowds  as  was  the  prophet's.  He  dealt  with  state 
ceremonies  and  public  worship,  but  also  with  individual 
consciences  and  souls.  He  was  a  father-confessor,  a 
casuist  and  spiritual  director.     Men  brought  to  him  the 


Prophet  and  Priest  137 

tales  of  their  guilt  and  the  burdens  of  their  hearts  along 
with  their  sin-and-trespass-offerings.  Often  his  method 
of  dealing  with  sin  was  mechanical  and  formal,  but  often 
also,  we  must  believe,  vital  and  real.  Eli,  the  high  priest, 
for  instance,  notices  the  distress  of  one  sorrowing  woman 
and  first  rebukes  her  supposed  sin  and  then  comforts 
her  real  sorrow.  The  priest  was  a  guide  in  the  way  of 
righteousness,  a  teacher  and  preceptor  in  the  art  of  right 
living  and  fellowship  with  God.  Often,  doubtless,  his 
casuistry  was  formal  and  meticulous,  but  often  also 
genuine  and  spiritual.  For  under  most  conventions  and 
precepts,  customs  and  observances,  which  are  the  secre- 
tions of  a  long  and  common  spiritual  experience,  lie, 
more  or  less  latent  or  patent,  conscience  and  principle 
and  spiritual  wisdom  which  the  true  priest  may  make 
real  and  vital.  So  Micah  interpreted  the  office  of  the 
true  priest.  "The  priest's  lips  should  keep  knowledge 
and  they  should  ask  the  law  at  his  mouth.  For  he  is 
the  messenger  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 

Out  of  the  priest  alone  comes  the  pastor.  The  lonely, 
solitary,  isolated  prophet  could  never  be  the  ancestor  of 
the  shepherd  of  souls. 

The  priest  has  his  palpable  limitations,  the  defects  of 
his  virtues.  They  are  so  common  as  to  be  commonplaces. 
They  are  stressed  so  often  and  so  strongly  from  the 
solemn  pages  of  the  Old  Testament  to  the  glib  talk  of  the 
modern  curb-stone  philosopher,  that  they  call  for  but  bare 
mention  and  not  explication.  He  is  apt  to  set  the  letter 
and  the  form  above  the  spirit.  His  precepts  sometimes 
hide  principles  rather  than  reveal  them.  Convention  and 
custom,  ceremony  and  observance,  take  the  place  of  con- 
science. ReHgiousness  is  made  a  substitute  for  right- 
eousness rather  than  a  means  thereto,  as  in  modern  days 
churchianity  for  Christianity. 

Especially  he  is  often  such  a  friend  of  the  past  that 


138         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

he  becomes  a  foe  of  the  future,  the  inveterate  enemy  of 
progress.  His  rule  is  apt  to  be,  "What's  new  is  not  true 
and  what's  true  is  not  new."  He  is  the  champion  of  con- 
servatism, the  "stand-patter"  in  all  ages.  It  was  perhaps 
a  "priestly"  scribe  who  put  immediately  after  our  Lord's 
prophetic  utterance,  "No  man  putteth  new  wine  into  old 
wine  skins,"  the  sarcastic  interpolation,  "and  no  man 
having  tasted  old  wine  desireth  new,  for  he  saith  the  old 
is  better,"  or  as  the  Greek  word  might  be  translated, 
"the  old  is  good  enough,"  the  motto  of  the  "stand-patter" 
always  and  everywhere. 

From  the  unmitigated  rule  of  the  priest  in  religion, 
politics  or  society  come  always,  paralysis,  petrifaction 
and  decay. 

But  the  priest  has  his  incalculable  values,  his  immeasur- 
able and  indispensable  use  and  service  everywhere,  if  the 
priestly  temper,  office  and  function  be  rightly  and  reason- 
ably developed  and  balanced. 

He  alone  can  build  up  and  administer  the  organizations 
and  institutions  of  religion;  and  while  organizations  and 
institutions  may  become  the  intolerable  tyrants  of  the 
spirit,  they  are  the  indispensable  and  efficient  instruments 
of  the  spirit  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
The  prophet  is  frequently  too  far  ahead  of  the  column 
to  be  a  leader  of  men.  The  priest  may  lag  in  the  rear. 
He  may  become  mere  ballast  and  brake.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  if  he  be  possessed  of  or  even  touched  with  the 
prophetic  spirit,  he  may  be  just  far  enough  ahead  and  yet 
just  close  enough  in  touch  to  be  the  most  effective  leader. 
He  may  at  once  interpret  and  inspire  the  common  con- 
science and  common  spiritual  experience.  He  may  make 
conscious  of  itself,  and  at  the  same  time  lift,  that  public 
opinion  which  so  potently  moves  and  rules  the  masses 
of  men.  He  is  the  true  conserver  of  values.  When  the 
wind  and  the  fire  and  the  earthquake  of  prophecy  have. 


Prophet  and  Priest  139 

swept  over  an  age,  a  people,  a  church  or  a  congregation, 
we  need  the  true  priest  with  the  prophetic  sense  to  gather 
up  the  scattered  values,  old  and  new,  and  build  them  into 
an  habitation  of  the  new  and  yet  old  spirit.  For  such 
a  priest  is  the  scribe  of  the  Kingdom,  "bringing  out  of 
his  treasures,  things  new  and  old."  He  alone  can  bring 
the  future  into  touch  with  the  past  and  weld  them  into 
a  vital  unity.  He  can  assess  the  values  of  both,  reject 
and  select,  and  out  of  such  chosen  materials  set  up  that 
order  of  "use  and  wont,"  of  custom  and  convention,  if 
you  please, — of  established  precept  and  settled  principles 
in  which  alone  either  souls  or  society  can  grow  strong 
and  wholesome. 

And  above  all,  he  alone,  as  we  have  seen,  ordinarily 
applies  to  the  edification  of  individuals,  of  consciences 
and  souls,  what  the  prophet  preaches  to  the  crowds.  And 
so  I  sing  the  praise  of  the  priest,  the  true  and  ideal  priest. 
He  has  an  indispensable  and  invaluable  contribution  to 
make  to  our  composite  ministry. 

Prophet  and  Priest — they  stand  for  radicalism  and  con- 
servatism, the  spirit  of  progress  and  the  principle  of  edi- 
fication, both  absolutely  necessary  to  a  wholesome  and 
strong  society,  church  or  individual  ministry.  A  friend 
of  mine  aptly  illustrated  the  comparative  values  and  rela- 
tions of  these  two  elements  after  this  fashion :  Radical- 
ism is  the  growing  power  of  the  tree — Conservatism  is 
the  bark.  Given  a  tree  all  growing  power  with  little  bark 
and  you  have  the  cotton-wood,  lush  and  lusty  but  spongy 
and  porous,  of  no  value  as  timber.  Given  a  tree  all 
bark  and  little  growing  power  and  you  have  the  gnarled, 
knotty  spindling  sapling  of  no  use  for  any  purpose.  But 
given  a  mighty  vitality  with  a  tough,  hard,  close  bark, 
and  you  have  the  oak,  the  monarch  of  the  forest. 

If  you  want  an  illustration  of  prophecy  run  wild,  go 
to  Hyde  Park  in  London  under  the  shadow  of  the  Marble 


140  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

Arch.  There  any  one  who  has  a  soap-box,  a  gHb  tongue 
and  an  alleged  idea,  particularly  a  nostrum,  may  orate 
to  his  heart's  content  to  such  as  he  can  get  to  listen  to 
him.  There  is  enormous  stimulation  in  the  process,  per- 
haps some  inspiration  and  formation  of  public  opinion 
that  shall  eventually  become  effective.  But  one  feels, 
after  listening  for  a  while  as  if  he  were  in  a  whirlwind, 
a  sirocco,  a  sand-storm,  or  present  at  the  tower  of  Babel. 
And  the  resultant  would  seem  to  be  more  a  confusion  of 
tons,ues  than  an  effective  crystallization  of  public  opinion. 
If  you  want  a  specimen  of  priest-craft  in  its  extreme 
form,  go  to  a  Christian  Science  meeting,  where  the 
''readers"  (not  preachers  or  prophets,  mark  you)  are 
not  trusted  to  express  a  single  idea  or  even  utter  a  word 
of  their  own.  Their  message  is  all  set  down  for  them, 
the  ipssissima  verba,  in  the  unintelligible  jargon  of  the 
"faith  once  delivered  to  the  saint,"  or  in  the  commentaries 
thereon  sent  out  with  the  authority  of  the  central  hierar- 
chy, and  the  liquescent  minds  of  the  quiescent  hearers  are 
poured  into  and  set  in  the  prepared  and  fixed  mould.  Of 
course  ultramontane  Romanism  with  its  petrifying  touch 
upon  souls  and  society  alike,  and  yet  its  enormous  effi- 
ciency gives  the  classic  example  of  the  priestly  ministry 
at  its  climax  of  power  and  development.  And  on  the 
other  hand,  extreme  Protestantism,  with  its  unbridled 
liberty  of  prophesying,  its  utter  freedom  of  private  judg- 
ment and  even  personal  revelation,  unmodified  and  uncor- 
rected by  any  modest  and  reasonable  comparison  with 
the  standards  of  the  common  and  historic  Christian  con- 
science and  experience,  inevitably  crumbles  into  frag- 
mentary sectarianism  and  gives  us  a  rank  growth  of 
fanatical,  absurd,  sometimes  unethical  and  even  unmoral, 
"isms."  We  have  our  "two-seed-in-the-spirit  Baptists," 
our  "one  foot  and  two  feet  Dunkards,"  our  "hooks  and 
eyes  Amish"  and  "button  Menisse,"  our  Holy  Rollers  and 


Prophet  and  Priest  141 

so  on  ad  infinitum  et  ad  nauseam.  Protestantism  with  its 
one-sided  emphasis  on  the  prophetic  element  in  its  min- 
istry has  given  us  many  precious  gifts,  the  freedom  of 
the  conscience,  spiritual  initiative,  high  moral  standards 
and  public  opinion.  It  has  inspired  most  of  what  is  best 
in  our  western  civilization.  But  it  also  disintegrates  the 
moral  and  spiritual  forces  of  our  common  Christianity 
into  clashing,  wasteful,  jealous  and  often  contemptible 
denominationalism,  if  not  individualism,  and  threatens 
Christendom  itself  with  dissolution.  It  is  another  aspect 
of  the  eternal  contrast  between  the  efficiency  but  tyranny 
of  an  authoritative  autocracy  and  the  liberty  but  ineffi* 
ciency  of  an  individualistic  democracy. 

If  Christian  unity  is  ever  to  come,  and  the  Christian 
Church  be  enabled  thereby  to  proclaim  her  whole  gospel 
with  compelling  authority  and  so  bring  to  bear  upon  the 
problems  of  the  world  her  united  moral  and  spiritual 
force,  she  must  learn  somehow  to  reconcile  the  priestly 
and  the  prophetic  and  conserve  the  values  of  both. 

But  it  is  of  this  problem  in  our  personal  and  individual 
ministries  that  I  would  especially  speak. 

Here  is  a  young  preacher  with  the  prophetic  tempera- 
ment. He  "dreams  dreams  and  sees  visions"  until  he  is 
persuaded  that  he  is  a  seer.  He  has  a  special  revelation 
from  on  high,  a  burden  of  the  Lord  laid  upon  him,  a 
word  of  the  Lord  that  burns  like  fire  in  his  bones.  Per- 
haps it  is  a  new  ground  plan  and  elevation  of  the  King- 
dom of  God,  with  all  details  and  specifications,  a  new 
vision  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.  He  will  reconstruct 
society  according  to  the  will  of  God.  He  flings  himself 
with  consuming  zeal  and  fervor  into  a  perfect  whirlwind 
of  prophetic  ministry.  And  like  all  such  whirlwind  min- 
istries, it  gathers  up  all  that  is  loose  and  unattached  and 
makes  for  a  time  a  great  show  and  noise.  He  draws 
about  him  other  like  souls,  fanatics  and  visionaries  for 


142  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

the  most  part,  and  they  constitute  his  congregation  or 
church.  To  them  he  prophesies  Sunday  after  Sunday, 
but  hardly  "according  to  the  proportion  of  the  faith." 
But  one  message  is  thundered  from  that  pulpit,  the 
burden  of  the  Lord  that  has  been  laid  upon  the  preacher. 
His  sermons  are  like  the  variations  of  a  fugue  which, 
after  all  has  but  one  simple  underlying  theme.  There 
is  no  "declaration  of  the  whole  counsel  of  God."  Bye 
and  bye  he  cannot  distinguish  between  the  message  of 
the  Lord  and  his  own  opinions.  He  becomes  self-cen- 
tered rather  than  God-centered.  And  there  is  no  pastoral 
ministry,  house  to  house  and  soul  to  soul.  "The  hungry 
sheep  look  up  and  are  not  fed,  but  swollen  with  wind 
and  the  rank  mist  they  draw."  There  is  no  edification, 
no  building  up  "towards  the  perfect  man,  towards  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ." 

There  comes  first  perhaps  a  break  from  the  general 
body  of  believers  to  which  the  preacher  and  people  once 
belonged.  The  prophet  must  stand  in  isolation  and  inde- 
pendence if  he  is  to  have  full  freedom  for  the  proclaiming 
of  his  peculiar  message.  He  starts  a  new  sect  of  one 
congregation.  There  follows  almost  inevitably  another 
break  from  historic  Christianity  itself  with  its  full-orbed 
completeness  of  doctrine.  Bye  and  bye  all  that  is  dis- 
tinctly Christian  fades  out  and  the  church  becomes  the 
church  of  the  Holy  Single  Tax  or  this  or  that  brand  of 
social  reform,  and  at  last  the  whole  iridescent  bubble 
bursts,  leaving  not  so  much  as  a  spot  of  wetness  on  the 
sea.  Have  we  not  all  seen  prophetic  ministries  that 
started  out  with  brilliant  promise  and  ended  in  such  sad 
and  complete  disaster  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  here  is  a  young  man  of  devotion 
and  faithfulness,  perhaps  of  ability  and  talent,  whose 
theological  pantries  have  been  well  stocked  by  some 
orthodox   seminary   with   canned   goods,    especially  the 


Prophet  and  Priest  143 

condensed  "milk  of  the  word,"  all  bearing  the  union  label 
of  his  sect.  All  his  sermons  are  dilutions  of  this  stock, 
orthodox  soups  made  according  to  the  recipes  laid  down 
in  his  denominational  cook-book.  He  never  thinks  for 
himself.  It  were  heresy  to  do  so.  He  never  expects,  and 
consequently  never  receives,  a  fresh  inspiration.  "The 
word  of  the  Lord  is  precious."  Therefore,  it  is  all  safely 
locked  up  in  the  treasury  of  the  Bible,  securely  shut  up 
between  the  Hds  of  the  One  Book,  with  possibly  subsi- 
diary strong-boxes  in  the  commentaries  of  the  orthodox 
theologians,  the  decrees  of  the  councils,  or  the  other 
depositories  of  the  "faith  once  delivered."  There  is  no 
open  vision.  He  looks  with  suspicion  upon  all  modern 
scholarship.  He  expects  no  "new  light  to  break  forth 
from  God's  word." 

He  consecrates  himself  devotedly  to  and  labors  unceas- 
ingly in  his  pulpit  and  his  pastoral  ministry  for  the 
"saving  of  souls,"  according  to  the  accepted  plan  of 
salvation.  He  stands  stoutly  for  church  going,  prohibi- 
tion, Sabbath  observance,  and  perhaps  stoutly  against 
smoking,  card  playing  and  dancing.  These  are  his  ten 
commandments  and  eight  beatitudes  rolled  into  one.  He 
trains  his  people  diligently  in  the  pieties,  proprieties  and 
respectabilities  of  those  prudential,  personal  and  self-re- 
garding virtues  which  save  a  man's  skin  and  reputation 
as  well  as  his  soul.  He  exhorts  and  inspires  his  people 
to  give  liberally  to  technical  charities  and  particularly  to 
denominational  causes  and  missions.  He  builds  up  per- 
haps a  strong  church,  solid  as  concrete,  petrified  in  un- 
swerving loyalty  to  fixed  standards  and  in  the  convictions 
of  accepted  dogmas,  and  often  makes  it  as  efficient  as  a 
successful  business  corporation. 

But  "where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish." 
They  lose  spiritual  vitality  and  initiative,  the  broad  out- 
look upon  the  Kingdom,  the  capacity  for  generous,  self- 


144         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

forgetting  service  and  sacrifice  for  the  cause  of  the  King- 
dom, the  social  message  and  vision  of  Christ  Himself. 
They  lose  all  those  noble  expansive  instincts  and  interests 
which  really  make  and  constitute  a  Christian  soul.  They 
degenerate  into  "model  Christians"  perhaps  in  the  dic- 
tionary sense  of  the  term,  "small  imitations  of  the  real 
thing,"  They  tend  to  become  professional  Pharisees. 
and  hardened  saints  whom  Christ  found  to  be  more  diffi- 
cult to  deal  with  and  more  hopeless  than  hardened  sin- 
ners. Social  reformers,  and  the  prophets  of  a  more 
Christian  order,  know  that  there  are  no  greater  obstacles 
in  the  path  that  leads  towards  their  goal,  the  very  vision 
of  the  Christ  Himself,  no  blinder,  more  obstinate  antag- 
onists of  that  supreme  ideal,  than  these  "blocks  of  hard- 
ened saints"  who  make  up  some  of  our  most  orthodox  and 
strongest  churches. 

Such  a  minister  is  the  typical  priest  in  his  extremest 
and  most  pernicious  development,  no  matter  how  ultra- 
protestant  the  body  he  belongs  to  and  the  theology  he 
professes. 

These  two  are  contrasting  examples  of  the  prophet 
and  the  priest  at  their  worst — gone  to  seed.  As  I  have 
said,  if  we  are  to  make  "full  proof  of  our  ministries," 
we  must  learn  to  combine  and  reconcile  the  two  func- 
tions, the  prophetic  and  the  priestly,  at  their  best. 

So  far,  in  these  lectures,  I  have  been  emphasizing  and 
stressing  the  prophetic  aspect  and  function  of  the  Chris- 
tian ministry,  and  I  would  not  diminish  that  emphasis 
and  stress  in  the  least.  It  is  the  most  vital  and  spiritual 
element  in  your  ministry.  Cherish  and  cultivate  it. 
Hold  yourself  open  and  keep  yourself  sensitive  to  ever 
fresh  and  new  revelations  from  on  high.  Expect  the 
vision  and  prepare  yourself  for  it  and  it  will  come  to 
you.  Accept  the  burden  of  the  Lord  as  He  lays  it 
upon  your  conscience  and  soul,  the  Word  of  the  Lord 


Prophet  and  Priest  145 

which  He  kindles  in  your  heart.  Deliver  it  boldly  and 
bravely,  though  you  have  to  stand  alone  against  the 
world.  Proclaim  the  whole  counsel  of  God  as  you  are 
given  to  see  it,  the  social  message,  the  gospel  of  the 
Kingdom  as  well  as  the  gospel  for  the  salvation  and 
edification  of  the  individual  soul.  "Quench  not  the  spirit. 
Despise  not  prophesyings.  Prove  all  things,"  even  those 
that  are  most  venerable  in  common  and  long  acceptance. 
Be  ever  ready  to  attack  any  wrong  or  falsehood,  however 
hoary  and  impregnably  fortified  by  custom  and  tradition. 

That  is  the  spirit  and  function  of  the  prophet,  and 
we  need  prophets  in  the  ministry,  if  the  church  is  to  ful- 
fill her  mission,  ay,  if  she  is  to  continue  to  live. 

But  "hold  fast  that  which  is  good"  in  things  old  as  well 
as  new.  Do  not  let  the  prophet  in  you  degenerate  into 
the  mere  iconoclast  and  perhaps  the  spiritual  anarchist. 
Be  constructive  in  your  ministry.  There  is  need  for  the 
destructive  every  now  and  then.  The  ground  must  be 
cleared  of  ruins  and  rubbish  before  the  new  edifice  of 
truth  or  life  can  be  set  up.  But  the  main  objective  which 
must  be  held  steadily  before  the  vision  is  the  constructive, 
the  erection  of  the  new  order  to  be  an  habitation  for  the 
new  spirit. 

Above  all,  do  not  let  your  particular  burden  or  message 
degenerate  into  a  mere  "idee  fixe,"  born  perhaps  as 
much  of  your  own  prejudices,  passions  and  half-baked 
notions,  with  a  dash  of  pride  in  your  own  intellectual 
and  spiritual  superiority,  as  of  the  spirit  of  the  Lord. 
Jonathan  Edwards  once  shrewdly  remarked  that  the 
saints  can  not  always  distinguish  between  their  consciences 
and  their  self-wills.  Be  willing  modestly  and  reason- 
ably to  compare  your  particular  message  with  the  great 
consensus  of  the  common  Christian  conscience  and  spirit- 
ual experience,  and,  if  necessary,  to  modify  and  correct 
that  message  thereby.     That  is  the  rational  use  of  the 


146  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

authority  of  the  Church.  It  is  a  reasonable  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  perhaps  the  collective  and  crystallized 
wisdom  of  the  saints  and  the  ages  is  at  least  as  wise 
as  your  wisdom.  By  such  means  restrain  and  regulate 
the  prophetic  impulses  that  "o'er  you  surge  and  swell." 
There  is  nothing  more  dangerous  than  the  utterly  unre- 
strained prophet,  who  yields  without  question  or  rational 
self-control  to  every  supposed  inspiration,  come  whence 
it  may.  Remember  St.  Paul's  wise  dictum,  ''The  spirits 
of  the  prophets  are  subject  to  the  prophets."  "Hear  the 
church,"  is  generally  good  counsel,  especially  for  the 
"mad  seer." 

Beware  of  unnecessary  isolations.  Sometimes  you  may 
be  called  to  stand  alone  against  the  world,  even  the  world 
of  your  fellow  believers,  for  a  truth  or  a  principle  which 
you  are  convinced  is  of  God.  If  so,  you  must  stand 
for  it  and  if  necessary  die  for  it.  That  is  the  business 
and  calling  of  a  prophet.  But  I  am  persuaded  many  of 
our  cherished  and  possibly  proud  isolations  are  unneces- 
sary. If  we  went  deep  enough,  we  should  find  the  under- 
lying unities  that  bind  us  fast  and  close  to  our  brethren. 
The  differences  are  in  modes  of  expression  and  methods 
of  application,  and  not  in  principle.  Cultivate  all  those 
possible  unities.  You  must  be  in  touch  with  the  column 
if  you  are  to  be  a  real  leader.  Especially  you  must,  so  far 
as  possible,  be  heart  and  soul  in  and  of  the  church,  if 
your  ministry  is  to  be  most  fruitful  and  efficient. 

Therefore  cultivate  and  strengthen  first  your  unity 
with  the  past.  Cherish  and  reverence  the  historical  con- 
tinuity of  the  faith  and  its  guardian,  the  Church.  That 
is  the  chief  reason  why  I,  if  you  will  pardon  again  a  per- 
sonal allusion,  infinitely  prefer  the  ancient  historic  creeds 
of  Christendom,  the  so-called  Apostles'  and  the  Nicene, 
to  all  modern  inventions  in  the  way  of  creedal  statements. 
This  is  not  a  c^^ed-making  age;  we  have  lost  the  art 


Prophet  and  Priest  147 

and  when  we  attempt  It,  we  generally  make  a  bungle  of 
the  job.  The  modern  creed  tries  to  be  scientific  and  psy- 
chological, philosophical  and  metaphysical,  and  succeeds 
in  being  only  awkward,  fixed  and  stilted  and  impossible. 
The  ancient  creed  was  simple,  historic  and  factual  for 
the  most  part  and  therefore  adapts  itself  readily  to  free- 
dom of  interpretation.  The  modern  creed  fits  the  mood 
and  temper  of  some  particular  denomination,  congrega- 
tion or  individual  believer,  and  these  only  for  the  time 
being.  Like  the  clothes  of  a  rapidly  growing  child,  it 
must  be  constantly  altered,  a  gusset  put  in  here,  a  skirt 
or  trouser-leg  lengthened  there,  and  especially  patches 
put  over  holes  and  worn  places  until  it  becomes  unsightly 
and  unwearable.  A  creed  to  me  is  not  a  fence  to  keep 
straying  feet  within  the  beaten  paddock  of  orthodoxy.  It 
is  a  banner  to  follow.  And  a£  Republicans,  Democrats, 
and  even  Socialists,  in  time  of  war  follow  with  the  equal 
enthusiasm  of  a  genuine  patriotism  the  common  flag  of 
their  country,  though  they  dififer  widely  in  the  interpreta- 
tion and  application  of  the  ideals  for  which  that  flag 
stands,  so  may  liberals  and  conservatives,  high,  low  and 
broad,  declare  with  common  voice  is  their  joyous  loyalty 
to  the  symbols  of  their  common  faith,  however  they 
differ  in  their  particular  interpretations  and  applications. 
And  these  historic  creeds  are  to  me  like  ancient  battle 
flags,  torn  and  tattered  in  many  a  strife  and  conflict  for 
the  common  cause.  When  I  say  them,  I  feel  Hke  draw- 
ing my  sword  as  the  Knight  Templar  does  when  he  says 
them.  For  I  am  at  that  moment  consciously  at  one  with 
an  innumerable  host  of  prophets,  apostles,  martyrs,  doc- 
tors and  humble  unnamed  and  unknown  saints  in  all  the 
ages  who  have  stood  for  these  same  eternal  verities.  I 
am  in  the  same  ranks,  elbow  to  elbow  with  my  comrades, 
in  that  great  army  of  God.  I  am  one  with  them  all  in 
our  common  and  essential  loyalties  however  we  may  differ 


148  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

in  our  particular  and  personal  interpretations.  For 
"fixity  of  interpretation"  is  not  "of  the  essence  of  the 
historic  creeds,"  the  House  of  Bishops  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding.  Liberty  of  interpretation 
within  the  limits  of  reason  and  essential  loyalty  alone 
can  make  those  creeds  vital  and  possible.  For  instance, 
when  I  say  "I  believe  in  one  God,  the  Father  Almighty, 
Creator  of  Heaven  and  earth  and  of  all  things  visible  and 
invisible"  the  ancient  believer  and  the  modern  literalist 
may  think  of  a  God,  sitting  upon  some  central  throne  of 
the  universe  who  moulded  balls  of  fire  and  flung  them 
into  the  skies  to  be  suns  and  moons  and  stars,  and  then 
stooped  down  to  fashion  a  mud  image  of  a  man  and 
breath  into  it  the  breath  of  life;  and  having  finished  His 
job,  on  the  sixth  day,  wound  up  the  clock,  set  the  ma- 
chinery going  and  ever  since  has  been  watching  the 
wheels  go  round,  with  an  occasional  intervention  to  patch 
up  breaks.  I  may  think  of  an  imminent  God,  forever 
acting  through  the  processes  of  life  and  evolution,  the 
eternal  creator  and  sustainer  of  a  vital  universe,  the  cause 
and  origin  and  the  sustaining  Hfe  and  power  of  all  that  is. 
But  we  both  believe  alike  in  the  "Father  and  Creator." 
One  believer  may  accept  literally  the  stories  of  the  Infancy 
as  told  by  St.  Luke  and  St.  Matthew.  Another  may  stand 
with  St.  Paul  and  the  author  of  the  Fourth  gospel,  who 
apparently  knew  nought  of  these  stories  of  the  virgin 
birth,  or  if  they  did,  made  no  mention  and  took  no 
account  of  them.  But  both  may  believe  with  full  con- 
viction in  the  unique  revelation  made  through  Jesus 
Christ,  "the  Word  made  flesh,"  "the  express  image  of 
the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth,"  "conceived  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary."  When  he  said 
"He  descended  into  Hell,"  my  ancient  brother  may  have 
thought  of  a  literal  underworld,  the  abode  of  the  shades, 


Prophet  and  Priest  149 

which  the  crucified  Christ  visited,  to  preach  to  and  con- 
vert the  long  dead  who  otherwise  could  not  have  heard 
His  gospel  of  salvation.  I  may  be  declaring  my  glowing 
and  joyous  conviction  that  "Christ  leads  me  through  no 
darker  rooms  than  He  went  through  before,"  that  my 
Lord  and  Saviour  hath  explored  the  utmost  limits  of 
possible  human  experience  and  outgone  them;  that  into 
whatever  depths  we  may  be  called  to  go,  the  Divine 
Love  has  gone  deeper,  and  ''underneath  are  the  everlast- 
ing arms."  "Yea,  though  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  lo. 
Thou  art  there  also." 

When  he  declared,  "I  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
body"  (and  he  said  "this  flesh"),  the  ancient  believer  was 
simply  asserting  his  trust  in  the  continuity  of  personality 
beyond  death  as  against  the  dreary  unsatisfying  doctrine 
of  transmigration  or  reincarnation,  a  mere  scientific  doc- 
trine of  the  conservation  of  energies,  as  taught  by  the 
gnostics.  To  the  ancient  believer  personal  identity  was 
connected  inseparably  with  the  body.  To  me  "the  body  of 
this  flesh"  may  be  but  the  constantly  changing  clothing 
and  instrument  of  the  spirit,  which  alone  is  the  real  per- 
son,— a  covering  and  tool  to  be  cast  aside  for  better  ones 
when  the  great  change  comes.  But  I  believe  intensely 
with  my  ancient  brother  in  the  continuity  of  personal 
identity  as  the  only  satisfactory  immortality,  and  there- 
fore I  can  say  heartily  and  sincerely  the  same  words 
which  mean  after  all  the  same  thing  to  us  both.  There- 
fore, I  cherish  and  rejoice  in  the  ancient  historic  creeds 
because  they  put  me  in  close  and  vital  touch  with  my 
brothers,  the  believers  of  all  ages,  the  loyal  soldiers  in 
the  great  army  of  Christ,  the  communion  of  saints. 

This  is  but  an  illustration.  This  is  the  method  many 
of  us  have  found  of  realizing  the  historical  continuity  of 
our  common  faith  and  our  vital  unity  with  the  past, 
through  the  living  bonds  of  the  ancient  creeds.     You 


150         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

may  have  another  method.  The  important  thing  is  to 
cherish  and  cultivate  that  sense  of  unity  with  the  past, 
for  with  it  comes  a  great  and  indispensable  inheritance 
and  inspiration. 

But  above  all  develop  and  strengthen  all  possible 
unities  with  your  fellow-believers  of  the  present.  If  there 
is  one  message  which  above  all  others  the  Christian 
Church  needs  to  heed  today,  it  is  this  message  of  unity. 
Particularly  our  divided  Protestantism,  with  its  constant 
tendency  to  further  disintegration,  needs  it.  This  mes- 
sage of  unity  is  today  the  "article  of  a  standing  or  falling 
church."  Because  of  the  lack  of  such  unity,  because  there 
was  no  common  voice  to  declare  the  whole  gospel  of  the 
Christ,  because  there  was  no  common  organization  to 
concentrate  the  moral  and  spiritual  forces  upon  the  task 
of  Christianizing  our  civilization,  national  and  interna- 
tional, because  the  Christian  Church  was  split  up  into  im- 
potent fragments  by  narrow  nationalisms  and  pitiful  de- 
nominationalisms, — for  these  reasons  largely  the  great 
disaster  has  swept  over  the  world,  all  but  wrecking  the 
whole  fabric  of  our  world  order.  To  repeat  Chesterton 
again,  "It  is  not  that  Christianity  has  failed — it  has  not 
been  tried."  But  the  church  has  failed,  miserably  failed 
to  realize  and  apply  her  common  Christianity,  and  she 
has  failed  by  reason  of  her  divisions.  And  if  she  is  ever 
to  be  even  partially  capable  of  the  great  task  of  recon- 
struction which  challenges  her  today,  she  must  achieve 
some  effective  unity.  We  are  reaching  out  towards  that 
goal  in  federations  of  churches  and  conferences  on  faith 
and  order.  But  it  must  first  be  a  chief  concern  and  task 
of  our  individual  ministries.  In  union  is  strength.  In 
isolation  is  failure.  The  priest  stands  for  union,  the  pro- 
phet too  commonly  for  isolation.  Beneath  the  sharp 
and  sometimes  jagged  peaks  of  our  particular  opinions  lie 
the  deeper  levels,  the  high  table  lands,  where  we  realize 


Prophet  and  Priest  151 

the  oneness  of  our  common  faith.  Let  us  cultivate  to  the 
utmost  those  unities  that  bind  us  first  to  our  brethren  in 
our  own  particular  communion  and  then  to  our  brethren 
of  all  names  and  connections  who  share  the  common 
Christian  heritage. 

And  then  let  us  never  neglect  that  personal  pastoral 
ministry  which  is  ever  the  function  of  the  priest.  Let 
us  never  be  beguiled  by  the  bigness  of  our  problems  and 
the  wideness  of  our  vision  in  the  social  gospel  into  forget- 
fulness  or  heedlessness  of  the  needs  of  the  individual 
souls  committed  to  our  charge.  So  many  prophets  of 
the  Kingdom  are  guilty  of  just  that  neglect.  It  is  the 
fatal  failure  in  many  an  able  and  devoted  ministry.  The 
solitary  soul  seems  insignificant  beside  the  great  tasks 
of  social  regeneration  which  we  conceive  to  be  laid  upon 
us.  It  is  lost  in  the  mass  or  the  class  or  overlooked  in 
our  rapt  vision  of  the  far  goal,  the  Kingdom  of  God  on 
earth. 

Let  us  ever  remember  that  Jesus'  ministry  was  pre- 
eminently a  ministry  to  individuals.  With  the  burden  of 
the  salvation  of  the  world  ever  upon  His  soul,  with  the 
mission  of  "discipling  the  nations"  constantly  before 
His  eyes,  with  the  vision  of  the  Kingdom  commanding  all 
His  seeing,  He  never  overlooked  a  single  soul,  however 
insignificant.  He  ever  approached  society  through  the 
concrete  individual  as  every  eflFective  ministry  must. 
His  best  sermons  were  preached  to  individuals,  the 
ignorant  sinful  woman  at  the  well,  the  timid  ruler,  slink- 
ing into  his  lodgings  at  midnight;  and  they  are  sermons 
that  deal  with  the  largest  issues  and  have  changed  the 
thought  and  life  of  the  world.  No  need  was  too  small 
for  Him  to  give  His  best  to  it.  At  the  faintest  cry  of  the 
humblest  sinner  He  would  stop  in  the  hurry  of  His  busiest 
day  or  under  the  urgency  of  His  largest  task,  to  give  all 
the  time,  attention,  thought,  all,  in  a  word,  of  Himself 


152  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

that  the  case  demanded.  And  that  has  been  true  in  its 
degree  of  every  great  ministry.  Never  let  the  prepara- 
tion of  great  sermons,  the  absorptions  of  large  public 
service  or  the  fascinating  interest  of  big  mass  problems 
tempt  you  to  neglect  the  humble,  faithful  but  obscure 
round  of  your  pastoral  ministry,  soul  to  soul.  Here  the 
prophet  must  never  crowd  out  the  priest. 

A  due  and  rational  respect  for  authority,  the  humble 
and  reasonable  willingness  to  test  and,  if  necessary, 
correct,  our  one  sided  idiosyncracies  by  comparison  with 
the  common  conscience  and  spiritual  experiences  of  the 
saints,  a  cultivation  of  the  unities  which  bind  us  to  the 
past  in  the  historic  continuity  of  the  faith  and  to  our 
brethren  in  the  present  in  the  fellowship  of  the  church, 
a  right  loyalty  to  and  estimate  and  use  of  the  institution, 
the  organization,  through  which  the  spirit  must  function 
if  it  is  to  be  effective,  a  reasonable  churchmanship  and  the 
faithful  pastoral  ministry  to  the  individual  soul — these 
are  the  priestly  elements  and  values  that  must  be  cher- 
ished and  cultivated  in  our  prophetic  ministry,  if  we  are 
to  "make  full  proof  of  that  ministry." 

There  is  one  function  of  the  priest  which  I  can  only 
touch  in  closing  but  which  ought  to  have  a  whole  lecture 
at  least,  if  not  a  whole  course  to  itself,  and  that  is  the 
function  of  public  worship.  I  am  more  and  more  con- 
vinced that  public  worship  is  the  chief  characteristic,  if 
not  the  paramount  business,  of  the  church  and  her  minis- 
try. Perhaps  it  will  be  the  only  function  left  when 
society  reaches  the  ideal  state  and  "the  Kingdoms  of 
this  world  become  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  His 
Christ."  Apparently,  according  to  the  seer  of  the 
apocalypse,  it  is  the  chief  business  of  heaven. 

The  Church  and  her  ministry  have  through  the  ages 
undertaken  many  functions  and  rendered  many  ser- 
vices now  no  longer  recognized  as  having  any  relation  to 


Prophet  and  Priest  153 

the  religious  institution.  The  church  was  the  original 
home  of  medicine  and  monks  and  priests  were  the  only 
physicians.  But  now  the  medical  profession  has  taken 
over  that  service.  The  church  was  the  mother  of  educa- 
tion and  priests  and  monks  the  only  scholars  and  teachers. 
But  the  state  has  largely  assumed  that  task.  And  it 
goes  without  saying  that  the  Church  was  the  original 
fountain  of  charity  and  beneficence,  and  the  clergy  the 
first  good  Samaritans.  But  hospitals  and  asylums,  relief 
and  charity,  are  now  mostly  public  concerns  and  func- 
tions. Modern  social  service  largely  sprang  from  the 
church  and  was  inspired  by  her  ministry.  But  social  set- 
tlements and  movements  today  are  largely  secular,  some- 
times too  much  so  when  they  have  lost  their  primal 
religious  spirit  and  motivation.  On  the  frontier  and  in 
mission  fields,  the  church  still  largely  fulfills  all  these 
functions  and  renders  all  these  services. 

Even  so,  the  time  may  conceivaby  come  when  the  func- 
tion of  preaching  will  no  longer  belong  peculiarly  to  the 
church  and  her  ministry.  It  does  not  exclusively  so  be- 
long today.  Everybody  is  preaching,  even  politicians  now 
and  then.  In  any  great  crisis  "the  Lord  gives  the  word 
and  great  is  the  multitude  of  the  preachers."  Our  late 
war  experience  illustrates  that  fact.  The  time  may  not 
be  far  distant  when  we  shall  have  no  settled  and  regular 
preachers  in  each  church,  for  "all  the  Lord's  people  shall 
have  become  prophets."  Then  we  shall  call  to  the  pulpit 
from  Sunday  to  Sunday  those  who  are  recognized  as 
having  some  special  message  for  social  uplift  and  guid- 
ance or  some  particular  inspiration  for  the  spiritual  life. 
We  may  turn  to  the  Quaker  use.  Remember  the  prophet 
was  originally  not  an  officer  of  the  church  but  generally  a 
layman  with  a  special  call  or  message.  He  may  revert 
to  type,  and  we  shall  no  longer  have  a  regularly  ordained 
and  recognized  prophetic  ministry. 


154         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

But  the  priest  will  remain,  especially  as  the  leader  of 
public  worship.  That  is  a  function  which  the  church 
can  never  surrender.  It  is  her  exclusive  business  and 
final  reason  for  existence.  I  believe  there  is  no  art  or 
service  more  needed  and  more  neglected  in  modern  life 
than  the  art  and  service  of  public  worship.  This  is  com- 
monly reckoned  an  irreverent,  unspiritual  and  materialis- 
tic age  and  yet  multitudes  of  men,  men  whom  you  would 
least  suspect  of  it,  are  secretly  and  often  unconsciously 
hungering  in  their  heart  of  hearts  for  that  sense  of  God's 
presence  and  reality,  his  "worthship"  which  can  be 
realized  only  in  a  true  public  worship.  They  go  to  church 
seeking  the  satisfaction  of  that  heart-hunger  and  find 
only  the  mechanical  rendering  of  a  ritual  and  liturgy 
meaningless  to  them,  or  the  frequently  skimped,  barren 
gauche  and  often  vulgar  and  irreverent  extempore  prayers 
of  our  Protestant  churches,  but  no  real  worship,  and 
they  leave  the  church  rarely  to  return. 

The  art  of  worship — there  is  nothing  that  needs  and 
demands  more  earnest  and  rational  study  and  cultiva- 
tion today.  Protestantism  has  been  particularly  neglect- 
ful of  it.  Protestantism  appeals  for  the  most  part  only 
to  the  intellect  and  the  emotions  through  reasoned  dis- 
courses or  hot  appeals  and  exhortations.  Romanism, 
with  all  its  empty  formalities  and  superstitious  cere- 
monials, has  been  truer  to  human  nature  and  its  needs. 
For  Roman  Catholic  worship  appeals  to  the  whole  man 
through  all  his  senses — through  the  eye,  in  stately  cere- 
monial, symbolic  objects  and  acts  and  sacred  pictures — 
through  the  ear,  in  the  most  magnificent  music  ever  com- 
posed— through  the  touch,  in  contacts  with  sacred  relics 
and  even  the  very  beads  that  slip  through  the  fingers 
of  the  devout  worshipper — even  through  the  nose,  in 
the  subtly  suggestive  fragrance  of  incense — ^^and  through 
the  taste,  in  sacrament  administered — and  it  all  has  its 


Prophet  and  Priest  155 

right  and  worthy  effect.  I  have  seen  many  a  simple  peas- 
ant or  workingman,  or  perhaps  most  frequently  work- 
ingwoman,  kneehng  before  a  tawdry  shrine  or  ugly  image, 
passing  her  beads  through  her  fingers  with  an  utterly 
rapt  expression  on  her  face,  completely  absorbed  in  rev- 
erent contemplation  and  devotion,  and  completely 
oblivious  of  the  external  world  with  all  its  distracting 
noises  and  sights.  However  ignorant,  crude,  supersti- 
tious her  worship,  she  was  conscious  of  the  unseen  and 
eternal.  I  have  rarely  seen  such  a  sight  in  a  Protestant 
church.  The  ordinary  Protestant  congregation  is  care- 
less and  indifferent,  distracted  and  irreverent.  The  wor- 
shippers are  often  self-assertive  in  their  very  postures 
even  in  the  presence  of  God,  sitting  or  lounging  or  politely 
bending  their  heads. 

I  believe  modern  psychology  is  going  to  teach  anew 
the  values,  and  demand  a  fresh  interpretation  and  more 
rational  cultivation,  of  the  old  instinctive  forms  and 
ceremonies  of  Hturgy  and  ritual  that  have  come  down  the 
ages  as  a  most  precious  part  of  our  common  Christian 
inheritance.  Because  they  have  been  abused  and  have 
degenerated  into  empty  forms  and  magical  ceremonies, 
we  have  lost  the  sense  of  their  immense  inherent  values 
and  inspirations.  By  scorning  and  abandoning  them  in 
our  Protestant  reaction,  we  have  often  "poured  out  the 
baby  with  the  bath  water." 

Nothing  that  has  been  born  out  of  a  deep,  long  and 
widespread  spiritual  experience  can  be  dealt  with  in  so 
summary  and  wholesale  a  manner  without  irreparable 
loss.  The  day  is  coming  when  we  shall  re-value  and  re- 
cultivate  this  lost  art  of  worship,  when  we  shall  summon 
all  the  arts,  music  and  painting  and  sculpture,  and  all  the 
aids  of  stately  ceremonial,  noble  liturgy  and  worthy  sym- 
bolism, to  make  men  conscious  of  the  presence,  reality  and 
glory,  the  "worth-ship"  of  God,  through  public  worship, 


156  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

thereby  to  inspire  awe  and  reverence,  faith  and  trust. 
And  men  shall  go  away  from  such  worship  shrived, 
cleansed,  uplifted  and  inspired  more  than  after  hearing 
our  most  eloquent  sermons. 

Modern  psychology,  with  its  law  of  suggestion  and  its 
teaching  of  mass-impression,  gives  us  hints  of  how  such 
a  worship  may  be  developed. 

I  think  it  would  be  well  if  we  had  a  department  in 
every  seminary  which  should  teach  the  art  of  worship, 
so  far  as  it  can  be  taught,  in  connection  both  with  modern 
psychology  and  ancient  liturgies  and  rituals. 

In  the  meantime  it  is  the  bounden  duty  of  every  min- 
ister to  bestow  as  much  thought  and  care  upon  his  pre- 
paration to  lead  the  devotions  of  his  people,  to  conduct 
and  inspire  their  worship,  as  upon  his  preparation  for 
his  pulpit.  For  here  the  priestly  office  is  at  least  as  im- 
portant as  the  prophetic. 


VIII 

The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment 

DR.  Henry  Van  Dyke  delivered  two  notable 
courses  of  lectures.  One  was  entitled  "The 
Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Sin,"  a  gospel  evidently 
needed  in  every  age,  for  every  age  is  an  age  of  sin ; 
and  another  entitled  *'The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of 
Doubt,"  a  gospel  which  is  possibly  more  applicable 
to  some  eras  than  to  others.  We  have  had  our  so 
called  "ages  of  faith"  (perhaps  some  would  call  them 
rather  ages  of  credulity)  as  in  mediaeval  times,  and 
we  have  had  our  eras  of  searching  and  not  altogether 
unwholesome  skepticism,  such  as  the  19th  century. 

Both  gospels  are  of  course  needed  today.  But  nei- 
ther sin  nor  doubt,  though  each  is  prevalent  and  dead- 
ly enough  surely  today,  is  the  outstanding  character- 
istic, the  dominant  note  of  the  immediate  times  in 
which  you  and  I  live  and  preach.  That  outstanding 
characteristic,  that  dominant  note,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
is  disillusionment,  with  all  its  natural  and  spiritually 
disastrous  consequences. 

I  would  speak  to  you  today,  therefore,  on  "The 
Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment."  I  call  it  a 
"day,"  rather  than  an  age,  for  I  hope  it  will  prove 
a  passing  mood  rather  than  a  permanent  state,  if  the 
church  and  her  ministry  can  grasp  their  message, 
their  gospel  for  the  day  and  preach  it  effectively.  But 
while  it  does  last,  this  mood  of  disillusionment  is  most 
serious,   oppressive   and   appalling.     It   is   practically 

157 


158         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

universal.  It  pervades  all  peoples  and  possesses  all 
classes.  It  dims  vision  and  paralyses  effort.  It  is 
peculiarly  disheartening  to  all  idealists  and  reformers. 
Only  the  blind  materialists,  particularly  the  profiteers, 
are  untouched  by  it.  To  all  others  a  night  of  gloom 
whose  darkness  may  be  felt  seems  to  have  spread  like 
a  pall  over  all  the  earth. 

If  I  took  a  text  for  the  gospel  for  this  day  of  dis- 
illusionmenit,  it  would  be  that  despairing  cry  of  his 
times  which  the  psalmist  voices,  "Lord,  who  will  show 
us  any  good,"  with  its  resolute  antiphon  which  wins 
its  way  back  to  hope  again  on  the  wings  of  prayer, 
"Lord,  lift  Thou  up  the  light  of  Thy  countenance 
upon  us".  That  is  the  answer  of  the  seer  and  prophet, 
the  man  of  God,  to  the  despairing  idealist  and  re- 
former. The  messenger  of  the  Lord  alone  has  the 
answer  to  this  mood  of  pessimism  and  he  must  give 
it.  "All  my  fresh  springs  are  in  Thee,  O  Lord."  For 
"with  Thee  is  the  fountain  of  life  and  in  Thy  light 
shall  we  see  light."  If  ever  a  day  needed  a  gospel, 
the  good  news  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  with 
all  its  fresh  springs  of  hope  and  endeavor,  its  un- 
failing and  inexhaustible  sources  of  inspiration,  its 
indefatigable  faith  and  unquenchable  joy,  its  irrepres- 
sible yet  rational  optimism,  it  is  this  day  in  which  we 
live. 

"Where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish."  Just 
now  vast  masses  of  people  are  wiilthout  vision,  grop- 
ing in  a  murk  of  bewilderment  and  despair.  It  is  the 
primary  function  and  business  of  the  prophet  to  see 
visions  and  to  give  vision.  For  the  prophet  is  first 
of  all  the  seer. 

"In  Thy  light,  and  in  Thy  light  alone,  O  Lord,  can 
we  see  ligiht."  I  believe  that  religion,  the  Christian 
religion,  is  the  only  final  refuge  of  o^ur  distracted  age. 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     159 

We  are  steadily  driven  towards  that  refuge  by  the 
focussing  pressures  and  necessities,  ay,  by  the  alter- 
native disasters  of  these  turbulent  times.  Even  busi- 
ness men,  who  are  immersed  in  material  concerns, 
are  feeling  and  declaring  that  fact,  though  they  often 
know  only  a  partial,  conventional  and  utterly  inade- 
quate type  of  religion.  The  crucial  question  is,  shall 
the  Church  and  her  ministry  apprehend  and  preach  the 
kind  of  a  gospel  which  the  day  demands?  Do  we 
understand  and  can  we  interpret  to  these  times  our 
Christ  and  His  message? 

Disillusionment, — that,  as  I  have  said,  is  the  char- 
acteristic temper  of  our  times.  It  is  the  natural  con- 
sequence, the  bitter  fruit  of  the  shattering  experience 
of  the  world  war  with  its  poisonous  aftermath. 

When  the  maelstrom  of  that  world-war  fell  upon 
us,  there  came  with  it  an  unprecedented  fervour,  a 
perfect  passion  of  high  idealism  which  seized  all 
peoples.  "The  Lord  gave  the  word.  Great  was  the 
company  of  the  preachers."  The  devil  gave  the  word 
also,  for  great  was  the  company  of  preachers  of  hatred, 
propagandists  who  appealed  to  the  lowest  and  basest 
passions.  The  bitter  dregs  of  their  wicked  work  still 
fester  and  ferment  among  us,  producing  that  hysteria 
of  panic-fear,  unreason  and  repression  that  still  pre- 
vails, particularly  in  the  United  States.  But  for  the 
most  part  our  preachers  were  preachers  of  righteous- 
ness. And  chief  among  them  was  our  President 
Woodrow  Wilson.  Whatever  criticisms,  just  or  un- 
just, of  his  administration  (and  I  have  my  own),  and 
wihatever  bitter  partisan  or  pefrsonal  haitreds  now 
becloud  his  name,  and  however  we  may  have  turned 
upon  him  in  wrath  as  we  have  turned  upon  all  ideal- 
ists, I  am  convinced  that  he  will  stand  out  in  the 
perspective  of  history  as  the  greatest  seer  and  prophet, 


160         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

if  not  the  greatest  woirld-statesman  of  our  age.  Many 
of  his  state  papers  will  live  as  long  as  our  national 
history  lives.  They  will  be  declaimed  by  the  school 
boys  of  the  future.  Particularly  his  definitions  and 
declarations  of  the  moral  aims  of  the  war  will  stand 
with  Washington's  Farewell  Address  and  Lincoln's 
Gettysburg  speech,  as  long  as  they  stand. 

He  proclaimed  that  we  were  fighting  tO'  crush  "That 
Thing"  the  incarnation  of  brute  force,  which 
threatened  to  trample  under  foot  and  ravage  all  the 
precious  hard-won  values  of  ages  of  struggle  and  so 
destroy  our  civilization.  We  were  fighting  to  make 
the  world  safe  for  democracy.  We  were  fighting  to 
make  an  end  of  war,  to  substitute  the  arbitrament 
of  reason  for  the  arbitrament  of  force.  We  were 
fighting  for  the  rights  of  small  nations  to  self-deter- 
mination and  security. 

Yes,  and  as  many  of  us  felt,  we  were  fighting  also 
for  the  rights  of  small  men.  Labor  should  get  equity 
and  justice  and  the  masses  of  the  common  people 
should  come  to  their  own.  The  old  reign  of  greed 
and  commercialism  in  international  relations  with  its 
tortuous  diploimacies  land  its  secret  treaties  should  be 
abolished.  And  with  it  should  go,  we  trusted,  the 
tyranny  of  greed  and  commercialism  in  the  industrial 
world.  We  were  fighting  for  right  and  liberty  and 
freedom  everywhere.  In  fact  we  were  fighting  for  a 
"new  wiorld  wherein  should  dwell  righteousness." 

Multitudes  of  voices  took  up  that  message  and 
carried  it  around  the  world.  It  rang  from  every  pul- 
pit. It  was  preached  to  armies  in  camps  and  on  the 
battlefields  and  to  the  peoples  who  stood  behind  them 
at  home.  Nations  interchanged  accredited  heralds 
and  messengers  to^  proclaim  these  moral  aims  and 
issues  of  the  war. 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     161 

It  was  these  ideals  that  inspired  and  sustained  the 
whole  tremendous  conflict.  It  was  these  moral  forces 
that  finally  won  the  victory  over  the  most  monstrous 
massing  of  brute  force  the  world  has  ever  seen.  It 
v/as  the  battle  of  Armageddon  we  felt,  the  arche- 
typal struggle  between  the  spiritual  and  the  material,  and 
the  spiritual  won. 

Under  the  pressure  of  this  supreme  crisis  and  the 
appeal  of  its  high  demands,  we  were  all  lifted  sud- 
denly to  the  peaks  of  idealism  and  far  vision.  And 
right  nobly  we  responded  to  the  call — all  peoples  and 
all  classes  in  all  peoples, — soldiers  on  the  fields  of 
battle,  in  unprecedented  endurance  and  heroism,  and 
citizens  at  home,  in  an  unparalleled  devotion  to  ser- 
vice and  to  sacrifice.  We  poured  out  unstintingly 
our  treasure  and  the  blood  of  our  sons.  Brute  force 
was  crushed  by  the  power  of  moral  ideals,  and  the 
victory  came. 

And  then  we  waited  expectantly  for  the  fulfillment 
of  our  hopes.  Those  hopes  largely  centered  upon  that 
greatest  vision  ever  conceived  in  the  realm  of  prac- 
tical statesmanship,  that  nearest  approach  ever  at- 
tempted in  international  relationships  towards  the  goal 
of  the  Christian  ideal, — The  League  of  Nations.  In 
its  "provisions  for  the  promotion  of  international 
peace  and  security"  it  would  end  war.  With  its  open 
covenants  it  would  banish  the  wiles  of  diplomacy 
and  its  secret  agreements,  and  break  the  reign  of 
national  covetousness  and  greed.  In  its  labor  clauses, 
it  would  set  up  throughout  the  world  a  common 
standard  of  justice  and  equity  in  industry.  In  its  man- 
datory clauses,  it  would  establish  a  family  of  nations, 
with  the  strong  bearing  the  burdens  of  the  weak. 
Surely  the  new  world,  to  be  born  out  of  the  travail 
pangs  and  agony  of  the  great  conflict,  was  on  the 


162         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

verge  of  birth.  It  would  arrive  at  5  :35  A.M.  on  Nov- 
ember 11th  1918,  the  moment  the  armistice  was  signed. 
The  millenium  would  be  here.  The  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  would  be  set  up. 

Then  came  the  crash.  We  were  dashed  from  the 
peaks  of  vision  into  the  bottomless  pit  of  despair, 
amidst  the  debris  of  broken  hopes  and  wrecked  ideals. 
The  millenium  did  not  arrive  on  time.  The  subtle 
diplomatists  and  unprincipled  opportunists  of  Europe 
bound  and  fettered  the  vision  of  the  idealist,  the 
League,  to  an  impossible  treaty  replete  with  unreason 
and  sown  with  the  seeds  of  future  discord  and  strife. 
Vengeance,  hatred,  greed  and  commercialism  seized 
again  the  reins  of  international  politics.  War  still 
smouldered  in  the  embers  of  the  recent  conflict  to  burst 
into  flame  here  and  there:  Famine  stalked  through 
the  lands  of  Europe.  Bankruptcy,  financial  and  moral, 
threatened  all  its  peoples.  And  the  masses  turned  to 
wrath  and  despair.  In  Russia  they  have  abandoned 
themselves  to  the  madness  of  anarchy.  Everywhere 
else  ferments  an  universal  popular  unrest  and  discon- 
tent which  threaten  future  revolutions. 

But  worse  than  the  material  plig'ht  of  Europe  is,  I 
believe,  the  spiritual  condition  of  America  today.  We 
have  fallen  sadly  as  a  nation  in  the  estimation  of  the 
intelligent  and  thinking  people  of  Europe.  They 
simply  do  not  mention  us  today  whereas  during  the 
war  our  praise  was  upon  all  lips.  We  have  wantonly 
thrown  away  our  opportunity  for  the  moral  and 
spiritual  leadership  of  the  world.  We  have  made  "the 
grand  refusal."  We  have  imperilled  the  world's 
supreme  hope  by  our  declination  even  tO'  make  trial 
of  the  league  and  that  declination  is  based  largely  upon 
the  most  unworthy  of  motives,  personal  hatreds  and 
partisan  prejudices  and  rivalries  as  well  as  commer- 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     163 

cial  ambitions.  We  have  proclaimed  in  party  cries 
a  policy  of  national  isolation.  While  we  have  con- 
quered Germany  outwardly,  we  seem  to  have  been 
conquered  by  her  spirit.  "America  first"  sounds  suspi- 
ciously like  a  translation  of  "Deutschland  uber  Alles,'' 
and  it  is  backed  up  today  by  a  Prussian  system  of  re- 
pression and  censorship  throughout  America.  And 
worst  of  all,  we  seem,  in  our  present  prevalent  mood 
and  temper  to  have  slumped  from  the  heights  of 
idealism  into  the  sinks  of  sneering  cynicism  and  sod- 
den, sordid  materialism. 

I  was  speaking  to  an  assembly  in  New  York  immedi- 
ately after  the  war.  I  referred  to  the  ideals  w^hich  had 
sustained  us  in  the  conflict  and  the  opportunities,  now 
presented,  to  realize  them.  I  was  followed  by  a  prom- 
inent statesman  and  publicist.  He  said  in  effect,  "The 
moral  ideals  of  the  war  were  all  right  in  their  time 
and  place.  They  served  to  sustain  the  hopes,  energies 
and  endurance  of  the  common  masses  throughout  the 
struggle.  They  enabled  us  to  win  the  victory.  But 
now  the  victory  is  won,  let  us  forget  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble those  iridescent  dreams  and  turn  to  practical  af- 
fairs." And  he  indicated  that  he  meant  by  "practical 
affairs"  merely  business  prosperity  and  commercial 
aggrandizement ;  and  his  audience,  a  trade  association, 
applauded  him  to  the  echo,  rising  to  their  feet  in  their 
enthusiasm.  I  felt  as  if  the  voice  of  our  heroic  dead 
would  speak  in  such  withering  rebuke  as  Alfred  Noyes 
has  since  expressed  in  his  noble  lines : — 

"Now  in  this  morning  of  a  nobler  age 

Though  night-born  eyes,  long  taught  tO'  fear  the  sun 
Would   still   delay  the  world's   great  heritage. 

Make  firm,  O  God,  the  peace  our  dead  have  won. 
For  Folly  shakes  the  tinsel  on  her  head,  / 

And  points  us  backward  to  darkness  and  to  hell, 


164         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

Cackling,  ''Beware  of  visions,"  while  our  dead 
Still  cry,  "It  was  for  visions  that  we  fell." 

In  this  slump  from  high  idealism  into  sneering 
cynicism  and  sodden,  sordid  materialism,  we  are 
threatened  with  a  regime  of  reaction  with  its  charac- 
teristic obscurantism  and  repression,  if  such  a  regime 
is  not  already  upon  us. 

We  are  told  on  high  authority  that  we  must  have 
"less  politics  in  business  and  more  business  in  politics." 
That  apothegm  is  capable  of  a  sinister  interpretation 
and  that  interpretation  seems  to  be  accepted  and  put 
in  force  today. 

During  the  war  we  found  that  our  system  of  un- 
bridled individualistic  greed  and  competition  broke 
down  under  the  tests  of  the  great  crisis.  It  could  not  meet 
the  tremendous  demands  of  our  supreme  need.  We 
had  tO'  put  business  and  industry  into  a  harness  of  sta- 
tute and  regulation,  that  their  selfish  and  divergent 
interests  and  forces  might  be  compelled  to  co-operate 
in  the  service  of  the  common  necessity.  Many  of 
us  'have  long  felt  that  the  demands  of  peace  are  as 
great  as  those  of  war,  that  at  all  times  we  need  such 
co-operation  for  the  service  of  the  common  weal.  But 
as  soon  as  the  war  was  over,  the  "harness  was  taken 
off"  of  business  and  industry.  Unbridled  greed  and 
competition  were  again  let  loose.  And  now  we  are 
to  have  more  "business  in  politics."  "The  invisible 
government,"  always  even  in  liberal  and  progressive 
eras  tremendously  though  secretly  active  and  power- 
ful, is  tO'  be  more  or  less  established  and  recognized. 
Apparently  we  are  in  for  the  reign  of  the  commercial 
conscience  and  the  rule  of  the  "business  man."  Now 
I  have  the  utmost  respect  for  the  American  business 
man  in  his  proper  sphere,  as  I  have  for  every  expert 
in  the  sphere  of  his  experience.     No  business  man  in 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     165 

the  world  exhibits  so  much  initiative,  enterprise,  skill, 
ingenuity  or  ability  in  organization,  administration, 
and  executive..  He  often  has  high  ideals.  But  I  do 
not  recognize  the  business  man  anywhere  as  per  se 
an  authority  in  the  spheres  of  economic  principles, 
political,  social  or  industrial  reform,  and  particularly 
in  education  and  religion.  And  yet  today,  flattered 
into  a  sense  of  a  professional  monoply  of  common 
sense  and  even  omniscience,  he  is  assuming  control  in 
all  these  spheres. 

Take  the  industrial  situation  by  way  of  illustration. 
As  I  said  in  a  former  lecture,  we  are  confronted  today 
by  one  of  those  secular,  world-wide  social  movements 
which  every  now  and  then  sweep  through  history. 
As  in  the  middle  ages  the  business  man  rose  inevit- 
ably to  his  present  position  of  domination  in  the  mod- 
ern world,  kings,  nobles  paling  into  insignificance  be- 
fore him,  so  now,  throughout  all  nations,  the  working 
masses,  the  proletariat  is  rising  like  a  tidal  wave  to 
claim  its  place  in  the  world  of  the  future. 

But  the  invisible  government  in  America  has  ap- 
parently decreed  that  that  movement  here  shall  be 
ruthlessly  repressed  and  suppressed  and  the  status  quo, 
the  present  order,  shall  be  maintained  at  all  costs  and  by 
all  means. 

Ernest  Poole,  in  his  striking  novel,  ''Blind"  (which 
by  the  way  is  more  of  a  sociological  study  than  a 
novel)  describes  the  present  situation  in  America 
thus:  "I  tried  to  look  ahead.  I  thought  of  those 
Gentlemen  Hounders,  so  conspicuous  in  these  days,  so 
self-righteously  resolved  to  clamp  down  the  national 
lid  and  see  that  this  damned  process  of  change  is 
put  a  stop  to  once  and  for  all.  And  I  wondered  if, 
while  still  there  was  time,  these  men  would  open  their 
eyes  and  look  back  into  the  grim  ironic  past.     Let 


166         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

no  more  radical  pioneers  be  allowed  to  disturb  this 
peaceful  land.  They  speak  as  men  spoke  long  ago  of 
Wendell  Phillips  and  his  kind  .  Mob  them,  lynch  them, 
throw  them  out!  No  more  of  this  labor  discontent! 
And  as  for  the  League  of  Nations,  this  talk  of  a  world- 
brotherhood,  let  it  be  deported  too.  Let  every  new 
thought  be  kept  out  of  our  country  that  the  old  may 
prosper  here. 

"It  has  been  tried,  gentlemen,  it  has  been  tried.  In 
ancient  Rome,  in  Spain,  in  France,  in  Germany  and 
Russia,  men  of  your  kind  have  again  and  again 
clamped  down  the  lid.  It  will  never  do.  Deport  our 
Bolsheviki?  As  well  deport  our  thermometers.  Throw 
them  out  of  the  sick  rooms.  Damn  the  things,  they 
scare  us  so!  Go-  at  the  patients  with  whips  instead, 
in  the  good  old  mediaeval  style  and  beat  the  devils 
out  of  them !  But  what  a  dangerous  policy.  If  the 
patient  were  normal,  gentlemen,  the  thermometer 
would  not  scare  us  so.  But  there  is  fever  here,  made 
up  of  wrongs  both  old  and  new,  and  not  only  in  the 
slums  of  our  cities  and  our  ugly  factory  towns  but  even 
out  on  the  farms  as  well,  a  deep  burning  discontent. 
You  can't  deport  it,  gentlemen,  nor  can  you  by  in- 
junotion  force  it  to  dig  coal  out  of  the  ground.  That 
way  leads  to  civil  war." 

The  most  sinister  feature  of  this  whole  reactionary 
movement,  now  prevalent  in  our  country,  and  the  one 
that  concerns  us  most  in  the  exercise  of  our  prophetic 
ministry,  is  its  policy  of  suppression  of  freedom 
of  speech  and,  if  possible,  even  of  conscience  and 
thought.  Taking  advantage  of  the  hysteria  of  panic 
fear  which  swept  over  the  country  during  the  war,  the 
outcome  of  a  poisoned  propaganda,  that  policy  is 
being  put  rigorously  into  effect. 

It  began  with  the  drive  on  red  radicalism,  when 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     167 

everybody  was  "seeing  red"  and  discovered  a  Bolshe- 
vist behind  every  bush.  Particularly  all  social  re- 
formers, all  critics  of  the  existing  order,  all  prophets 
of  social  righteousness  or  the  Kingdom  of  God,  even 
all  liberals  and  progressives,  were  branded  as  "parlor 
Bolshevists"  and  described  as  the  most  dangerous  of 
all.  Large  numbers  of  the  "strangers  within  our  gates," 
aliens  who  had  sought  refuge  in  the  trumpeted  liberty 
and  opportunity  of  free  America,  were  arrested  by 
secret  process,  often  without  warrant,  upon  informa- 
tion obtained  and  sometimes  manufactured  by 
"agents  provocateurs."  They  were  often  maltreated 
and  even  tortured  in  their  examinations,  denied  the 
ordinary  rights  of  legal  defense,  jailed  for  months 
without  trial,  frequently  deported  without  cause.  Many 
of  them,  as  I  know  from  personal  examination  of  one 
large  group  in  Detroit,  were  innocent,  ignorant  and 
simple-minded  foreigners  who  did  not  have  the  re- 
motest idea  what  it  was  all  about.  Accidental  con- 
nection with  an  organization  whose  tenets  could  be 
construed  into  favoring  any  economic  or  political 
heresy,  even  teaching  or  studying  mathematics  or 
history  in  the  home  of  such  an  organization,  were 
ample  grounds  for  deportation. 

Under  that  same  hysteria  of  panic-fear  thirty-four 
states  and  territories  have  passed  so  called  "Anti- 
sedition"  laws  which  are  used  to  punish  persons  for 
expressing  unorthodox  economic  or  political  beliefs, 
thus  for  the  first  time  in  our  history  going  behind 
the  overt  act  into  the  realm  of  opinion  and  inflicting 
punishment  therefor,  thereby,  in  the  alleged  defense 
of  our  Constitution,  violating  the  whole  bill  of  rights 
embodied  in  the  first  group  of  amendments  attached 
to  that  instrument  and  made  an  integral  part  thereof 
before  it  was  accepted  by  the  states. 


168  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

Representatives  duly  and  repeatedly  elected  by  the 
people  have  been  unseated  in  one  legislature  for  their 
econo'mic  opinions,  an  act  which  undermines  the  very 
foundations  of  democracy  and  representative  govern- 
ment. 

The  public  press  has  been  largely  prostituted  and 
sold  ourt.  It  is  controlled  by  the  invisible  goverment, 
not  only  in  its  editorial  expressions  which  may  be  of 
comparatively  little  consequence,  but  in  its  channels 
of  information,  the  Press  associations  of  telegraphic 
service,  so  that  the  facts  are  deliberately  distorted 
or  suppressed.  In  a  certain  city  not  long  ago,  a  meet- 
ing was  held  in  which  many  millions  of  capital  sat 
around  the  board.  How  many  minds  and  consciences 
were  there  deponent  sayeth  not,  though  there  were 
leaders  in  the  business  world  and  the  church  there. 
Before  this  assembly  a  proposition  was  laid  which 
received  enthusiastic  commendation  from  all  present 
save  two  ministers  who  happened  to  be  invited.  The 
proposition  was  to  form  an  organization  to  control 
one  million  dollarsi  of  advertising  and  distribute  it 
among  the  foreign  language  press  of  the  country  on 
condition  that  every  article  to  be  published  in  these 
journals  should  first  be  translated  into  English  and 
submitted  to  a  board  of  censors  appointed  by  the 
organization. 

And  now  the  assault  is  turned  upon  those  central 
citadels  of  freedom  of  thought  and  liberty  of  speech — 
the  teacher's  chair  and  the  prophet's  pulpit.  Every 
now  and  then  professors  are  dismissed  from  universi- 
ties for  unorthodox  economic  views  by  Boards  of 
Trustees  co^mposed  of  business  men.  One  was  dis- 
missed for  analyzing  the  tax  returns  of  a  mining 
company  and  proving  that  the  corporation  had  dodged 
taxes ;  another,  a  prominent  member  of  the  legal  pro- 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     169 

fession,  for  looking  into  the  causes  of  a  strike  and  the 
secret  connection  between  the  employing  corporation 
and  the  state  officials. 

A  bill  has  passed  one  legislature,  estabHshing  a 
board  of  censors  to  examine  intO'  the  economic  and 
political  beliefs  of  all  teachers  in  the  public  schools. 
The  teacher  used  to  have  to  appear  before  the  Bishop 
to  establish  his  theological  orthodoxy  before  he  was 
licensed  to  teach.  According  to  this  bill  he  must 
appear  before  the  lay  pope,  the  business  man  and 
legislator,  to  prove  his  poHtical  orthodoxy  before  he  is 
allowed  to  teach. 

And  lastly  comes  the  assault  upon  the  pulpit.  Many 
voices  are  saying  unto  the  prophets  of  today,  "Cause 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel  to  cease  before  us.  Prophesy 
not  unto  us  right  things.  Prophesy  smooth  things."  We 
have  our  self-constituted  ''guardian  angels"  in  such 
organizations  as  the  "Civic  Federation"  and  various 
business  associations,  to  watch  and  to  warn.  Their 
officials  act  sometimes  as  chief  inquisitors  for  the 
clergy.  If  you  preach  the  gospel  of  the  Kingdom 
or  the  Christianizing  of  the  social  order,  the  following 
program  is  likely  to  be  pursued.  First,  kindly 
advisors  among  your  laymen  drop  in  to  give  you  pru- 
dent counsel.  If  you  go  on,  perhaps  committees  of 
your  vestry  or  board  of  trustees  of  the  parish  or 
prominent  laymen  of  your  diocese,  come  in  to  talk 
things  over,  to  reason  and  expostulate.  Meanwhile, 
undoubtedly,  the  secretary  of  the  Civic  Federation, 
the  Grand  Inquisitor,  has  posted  you,  and  perhaps 
you  are  blacklisted  in  the  trade  letters  of  some  manu- 
facturers' association  as  a  dangerous  radical ;  and  finally, 
possibly,  unless  you  are  impregnably  fortified  in  your 
position,  out  you  go. 

The  business   man   of   today   wants   religion.     He 


170         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

wants  it  earnestly,  sometimes  frantically.  As  I  said 
before,  he  is  being  driven  towards  it  as  his  only  refuge, 
and  the  only  security  for  a  tottering  industrial  order, 
— driven  by  the  pressures  of  the  necessities  and  perils 
of  the  situation  and  by  the  alternatives  of  disaster 
that  confront  the  intelligent.  He  even  preaches  reli- 
gion, writes  books  about  the  necessity  of  religion  as 
the  only  solvent  of  the  problems  of  the  times,  exhorts 
his  fellows  to  get  behind  the  church  and  support  it, 
and  issues  calls  to  prayer. 

But  the  religion  he  wants  is  frequently  what  is 
called  "the  simple  gospel,"  purely  individualistic  reli- 
gion, which  concerns  itself  solely  with  conventional 
ethics,  saving  souls,  pieties  and  proprieties,  above 
all  law  and  order — a  religion  which  will  give  him  hon- 
est bookkeepers,  faithful  and  industrious  laborers, 
facile  tools  for  his  purposes  and  keep  the  masses 
quiet  and  content. 

I  have  been  criticised  as  indiscriminately  and  un- 
justly condemning  all  business  men  in  this  and  similar 
utterances.  I  think  it  is  evident  from  the  context  and 
the  language  that  I  am  speaking  here  of  the  type  or 
composite  of  the  class.  Certainly  the  mass-judgments 
and  class-consciousness  of  the  business  man  as  set 
forth  in  the  utterances  of  Chambers  of  Commerce, 
Employers'  Associations,  Bank  Letters,  etc.,  and  in 
the  talk  of  the  average  man  of  the  street,  manifest 
tha/t  conception  of  the  meaning  and  place  of  religion 
which  I  have  described.  I  thankfully  recognize  that 
there  are  hosts  of  individual  American  business  men 
who  accept  the  soicial  gospel  and  acknowledge  that  the 
principles  of  Christianity  must  be  applied  to  indus- 
trial and  commercial  systems  as  well  as  to  individual 
and  personal  lives.     In  such  men  is  our  chief  hope. 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     171 

But  there  is  nothing  which  the  present  commercial- 
ized conscience  of  America  with  its  regime  of  reaction 
and  the  invisible  government  of  the  "business  man" 
— there  is  nothing  which  this  order  more  dreads  than 
a  real  prophetic  ministry  with  the  vision  of  the  seer 
and  the  courage  of  the  prophet.  As  a  religious  journal 
recently  said,  "The  (old)  civilization  that  is  struggling 
for  its  life  is  more  afraid  of  the  Gospel  than  of  all  the 
forces  of  evil  put  together.  The  people  who  love  the 
world  as  it  is  are  desperately  afraid  that  the  Church 
will  apprehend  Christ." 

Occasionally  they  whistle  to  keep  up  their  courage. 
Said  the  chairman  of  the  executive  committee  of  the 
Civic  Federation  the  other  day,  "Many  things  have 
happened  in  the  past  year  to  encourage  those  who 
resented  the  shallow  sentimentaHsm  that  is  clamoring 
for  the  establishment  of  a  new  social  order"  (that  is 
Christ's  vision  of  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  earth).  Yet 
in  spite  of  his  vigilance  Mr.  Easley  admits  that  there 
is  still  danger  of  the  Church's  catching  that  vision, 
for  he  adds,     "We  are  not  yet  out  of  the  woods." 

For  in  that  same  year  of  reassuring  quiet,  both  a 
commission  of  the  Roman  hierarchy  and  a  commission 
of  the  Federation  of  the  Churches  have  made  bold 
to  strip  off  the  camouflage  of  the  American  plan  and 
reveal  the  sinister  purpose  that  lurks  at  its  heart.  The 
Interchurch  Commission  Report  on  the  Steel  Strike 
has  been  published;  various  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tions have  proclaimed  the  right  of  labor  organizations 
to  collective  bargaining,  taking  their  stand  practically 
on  the  great  dictum  of  a  brave  judge  who  said,  "There 
can  be  no  freedom  of  contract  where  there  is  not  equal- 
ity of  opportunity  on  both  sides,"  and  there  certainly 
cannot  be  equality  of  opportunity  on  both  sides  when 
a  horde  of  disorganized  individual  laborers  faces,  each 


172  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

for  himself,  great  employing  corporations  organized 
into  close  associations.  And  many  utterances  of  simi- 
lar import  have  come  from  the  official  organs  of  the 
Christian  Church. 

But  what  about  the  ministry,  the  prophetic  minis- 
try! Does  not  the  present  situation  ring  a  heart- 
searching  challenge  in  its  ears !  Is  the  ministry  hear- 
ing and  heeding  that  challenge ! 

Some  of  our  best  friends,  members  of  our  calling, 
critics  from  our  own  household  of  the  faith,  seem  to 
think  we  are  not.  Prof.  Coe  in  a  recent  article  sug- 
gests that  the  ministry  is  breaking  down  religiously. 
He  supports  that  suggestion  by  the  record  of  the 
ministry  in  three  periods.  I  shall  quote  alt  length  from 
the  substance  of  the  article  with  my  own  comments: 

Before  the  war — surely  in  those  quiet  days  of  peace 
the  Christian  ministry  with  its  thousands  of  pulpits 
all  over  the  land  in  every  city,  hamlet  and  rural  center, 
with  its  scores  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  sermons 
a  year, — surely  the  ministry  had  ample  opportunity  to 
make  its  voice  heard  and  its  message  clear !  People 
ought  tO'  have  understood  what  the  ministry,  the 
church,  and  Christianity  itself  stood  for  and  what  they 
stood  against. 

And  yet  the  universal  testimony  of  army  and  navy 
chaplains  shows  that  the  average  soldier  and  sailor 
had  scarcely  the  faintest  idea  of  the  real  meaning  and 
message  of  the  Christian  revelation.  They  were  dense- 
ly ignorant  not  only  of  the  fundamental  verities  of  the 
Christian  faith  but  also  of  the  outstanding  and  essential 
principles  of  Jesus'  teaching  and  preaching, — His  mind 
and  His  spirit,  what  He  stood  for  and  what  He  stood 
against.  They  had  a  vague  notion  that  the  ministry,  the 
church,  religion  and  Jesus  Himself  stood  against  wick- 
edness in  general  and  for  goodness  in  general.    A  valu- 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     173 

able  notion  so  far  as  it  went.  But  what  kind  of  wicked- 
ness did  they  stand  against  and  what  kind  of  goodness 
did  they  stand  for!  Well,  for  the  most  part,  in  the 
average  man's  mind,  the  religious  or  Christian  ideas 
of  goodness  and  badness  might  all  be  summed  up  in 
a  short  series  of  negative,  self-regarding  and  some 
of  them  merely  sumptuary  prohibitions, — "Don't  get 
drunk,  don't  commit  fornication,  don't  swear,  and 
perhaps  don't  smoke,  chew,  dance  or  play  cards."  And 
the  end  and  purpose  of  it  all  was  to  save  your  skin 
for  this  world  and  your  soul  for  the  next.  But  as  for 
religion  standing  tor  some  supreme  all  embracing  posi- 
tive cause  of  righteousness,  justice  and  brotherly  love, 
a  cause  capable  of  inspiring  a  complete  devotion  and 
consecration,  a  heroism  and  self-sacrifice  such  as  the 
war  itself  evoked,  they  never  dreamed  of  it.  They  did 
not  even  connect  such  a  cause  with  religion  in  any 
w"ay;  nor  did  they  think  of  the  positive  virtues  of 
courage  and  humility,  of  service  and  sacrifice  for  a 
comrade  or  the  cause,  those  peculiarly  military  vir- 
tues, as  having  any  relation  to  religion  or  the  mind 
and  spirit  of  Christ.  Surely  the  ministry  had  not 
gotten  the  real  message  of  the  gospel  across  to  the 
mind  of  the  average  man  in  the  piping  times  of  peace. 

But  you  may  say,  these  were  outsiders  for  the  most 
part — men  who  did  not  go  to  church  (more  shame  to 
us — "the  common  people  heard  him  gladly."  Why 
don't  they  hear  us  gladly?  Possibly  because  we  do 
not  deliver  His  message.)  They  were  not  church 
members  and  therefore  ignorant  of  what  the  gospel 
is. 

Well,  let  us  take  the  average  church  member.  What 
is  his  idea  of  What  church  membership  involves?  Let 
me  quote  Dr.  Coe  exactly  in  his  interpretation  of  the 
mind  of  the  average  church  member: 


174  The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

"That  I  am  a  church  member  means  that  I  have  been 
converted ;  that  I  beHeve  the  Christian  doctrines ;  that  I  go 
to  church ;  that  I  partake  of  the  bread  and  wine  in  Holy 
Communion;  that  I  abstain  from  killing,  stealing,  ly- 
ing, liquor  and  fornication;  that  I  am  benevolent; 
that  I  pray  and  use  the  other  means  of  grace ;  that  I 
support  church  enterprises  with  my  money  and  my 
labor — is  not  that  a  fair  inventory  of  current  ideas 
so  far  as  they  are  at  all  definite ! 

That  these  ideas  are  not  insignificant  goes  with- 
out saying.  It  is  no  slight  thing  to  have  in  a  com- 
munity an  organization  and  a  voice  that  constantly 
speaks  for  so  much  that  is  good. 

But  Jesus  said  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  was 
"like  unto  a  man  who  found  a  treasure  hid  in  a  field" 
and  for  joy  of  that  discovery  he  went  and  sold  all  he 
had  and  bought  that  field.  Suppose  all  our  church- 
membership  should  make  a  discovery  like  that,  get 
the  vision  of  the  Kingdoim  that  commanded  all  Jesus 
seeing,  whatever  it  means,  see  in  their  religion  a  su- 
preme objective  subsuming  in  itself  all  that  is  real 
and  worthy  in  life  and  in  the  world,  a  cause  worth  a 
life  and  death  investment, — what  would  happen?  The 
releasing  of  the  vast  potential  spiritual  power  now 
locked  up  in  our  churches,  the  dedication  of  the  enorm- 
ous wealth  invested  and  represented  therein,  the  con- 
secration of  the  ablest,  best  endowed  lives  and  person- 
alities in  the  world,  and  the  world  itself  would  be 
transformed." 

But  our  people  see  in  their  conventional  religion  no 
such  vision  as  Christ  proclaimed  in  His  gospel.  And 
why  do  they  not  see  it !  Because  their  seers  and  prophets 
have  not  set  it  before  themi.  And  why  have  they  not  set 
it  before  them?  Because  they  have  not  seen  it  them- 
selves. 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     175 

Again  take  the  period  of  the  war.  Surely,  here 
came  a  great  'test  which  should  have  broken  up  the 
crusts  of  convention,  tradition  and  habit  and  pierced 
to  the  heart  of  our  message.  The  ministry  undoub- 
tedly did  worthy  and  noble  service  during  the  war. 
They  preached  up  its  moral  ends  and  issues  to  sus- 
tain the  struggle.  They  stimulated  service  and  sacri- 
fice, charity  and  beneficence,  to  meet  the  tremendous 
appeal  of  human  need  and  suffering.  But  so  did  the 
newspapers.  The  ministry  but  followed  their  lead. 
They  carried  comfort  and  hope  to  the  suffering  and 
bereaved,  and  chaplains  brought  to  multitudes  of  in- 
dividual soldiers  and  sailors  strength  to  endure  temp- 
tation and  hardship. 

All  this  was  invaluabl  ;.  But  all  this  others  could 
do  and  did  do.  What  was  the  distinctively  Christian 
contribution  the  Church  and  her  ministry  made?  Here 
surely  were  issues  sufficient  to  stimulate  to  the  utmost 
whatever  there  was  of  conscience  in  man.  Here  were 
moral  confusions  to  be  cleared  up ;  here  were  temp- 
tations as  vast  as  empires  to  be  met;  here,  if  ever, 
the  difference  between  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  every 
other  aim  in  life  needed  to  be  brought  to  the  fore  in 
men's  thinking  concerning  the  future  of  society.  If 
ever  in  the  history  of  man  a  "Thus  saith  the  Lord" 
was  needed,  it  was  needed  then.  Yet  the  ministry  in 
general  had  nothing  to  offer.  A  few  individuals  paused 
to  ask  wheither  the  spirit  of  Jesus  was  leading  us  in 
the  world  welter  and  a  few  endeavored  to  weigh  in 
Christian  scales  the  principles  upon  which  our  con- 
temporary society  and  w^orld  order  are  so  bunglingly 
organized.  A  few  gestures  of  friendship  were  directed 
by  ecclesiastical  groups  towards  members  of  Christian 
communions  in  enemy  countries.  But  the  masses  of 
the  clergy  took  their  cues  concerning  the  great  issues 


176         The  Phophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

of  the  times  from  the  same  prompters  to  whom  the 
worldlings  who  control  our  newspapers  turned  for 
guidance. 

And  now  since  the  war,  in  this  poisonous  after- 
math of  the  conflict,  come  still  more  searching  tests. 
They  meet  us  on  every  side. 

For  instance,  has  the  Christian  ministry  generally 
had  anything  to  say  about  the  treatment  of  conscientious 
objectors?    Is  not  that  a  Christian  issue? 

Has  it  raised  any  general  or  effective  protest  against 
the  tyranny  of  the  prevailing  reaction  and  obscurant- 
ism, the  repression  of  freedom  of  speech  and  liberty 
of  conscience?  Where  is  the  spirit  of  our  pilgrim 
father's  who  fled  to  these  shores  for  the  sake  of  such 
liberty  and  freedom  and  founded  a  nation  dedicated 
tO'  their   maintenance? 

Or  again,  we  face  a  cofrrimercial  and  industrial  sys- 
tem that  is  practically  heathen.  To  our  credit,  be  it 
said,  the  official  church  has  grown  bolder  and  bolder 
in  its  utterances  on  certain  specific  aspects  of  the 
problem,  "the  details  of  the  periphery."  It  has  investi- 
gated the  steel  strike.  It  has  spoken  for  fair  wages 
and  hours,  the  right  of  organization,  collective  bar- 
gaining, etc.  But  has  the  ministry  ever  penetrated  to 
the  heart  of  the  question? 

Let  me  quote  again  Dr.  Coe  exactly,  as  I  did  in  a 
former  lecture,  for  this  utterance  does  go  to  the  heart  of 
the  main  issue  before  us  and  it  is  worth  iterating  and 
reiterating : 

"Is  a  system  in  which  one  works  for  wages  and 
another  for  profit  fundamentally  Christian,  anti- 
Christian  or  neutral?  Are  its  motives  Christian? 
What  is  the  effect  upon  character  of  the  repeated  exer- 
cise of  these  motives;  What  is  the  actual  outcome 
as  respects  the  relation  of  man  to  man?     Here  we  are. 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     177 

concerned  with  the  value  and  meaning  of  life.  Our 
question  leads  straight  back  to  Jesus  and  straight 
forward  to  any  vision  that  we  dare  indulge  concern- 
ing the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  It  is  not 
answered  by  any  position  we  may  take  upon  such 
special  problems  as  the  hours  of  labor  or  prevention 
of  industrial  accidents,  much  less  can  any  talk  con- 
cerning a  fair  wage  so  much  as  touch  it.  It  is  the 
great  parting  of  the  ways  for  the  Christian  ethics 
of  society.  The  ministry  must  take  upon  this  ques- 
tion an  open  stand  that  is  definitely  Christian  or  lose 
its  soul. 

We  have  needed  guidance  on  this  point,  O  how  sore- 
ly, for  years.  Industrialism  has  developed  its  logic 
far  faster  than  our  ethical  insight  intO'  the  new  condi- 
tions has  grown.  For  many  years  too,  voices  have 
challenged  us  to  face  this  issue,  so  that  we  can  hardly 
plead  that  we  have  not  had  time  to  find  an  answer. 
"And  while  men  slept,  an  enemy  came  and  sowed 
tares."  Opposing  forces  are  gathering,  enormous 
forces  on  both  sides,  to  attempt  the  solution  of  this 
fundamental  ethical  problem  by  the  clash  of  non-ethi- 
cal weapons.  And  the  Christian  ministry  is  looking 
on.  We  can  not  plead  by  way  of  excuse  that  we  are 
not  technical  experts  and  therefore  are  unfitted  to 
deal  with  the  problem.  It  is  not  a  question  of  ways 
and  means,  machinery  and  organization.  That  we 
must  leave  to  the  experts  in  those  fields.  It  is  a 
question  of  moral  and  spiritual  dynamics,  of  motives, 
and  that  demands  the  insight  of  the  prophet  and  the 
seer." 

Let  me  quote  just  one  other  critic  and  I  am  done,  a 
more  positive  and  flaming  critic.  This  editorial  appeared 
in  a  recent  religious  journal,  "The  Churchman,  January 
22,  1921 : 


178         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

"Once  only  in  many  centuries  does  there  dawn  a 
day  when  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  speaks  to  the  chil- 
dren of  men  with  such  a  piteous  appeal  as  God  has 
spoken  to  His  children  since  the  firing  of  guns  ceased 
on  the  western  front.  Out  of  the  agony  and  ecstacy 
of  the  war  there  rose  to  the  lips  of  men  everywhere 
an  expression  of  great  religious  hunger.  From  the 
year  1914  to  1918  the  cry  "A  New  World"  was  spoken 
almost  with  the  passion  and  yearning  with  which 
John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  preached  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  Something  Divinely  beautiful  was  trembling 
on  the  verge  of  birth.  Every  clergyman  in  the  land 
uttered  the  words  as  he  would  utter  a  prayer.  God 
forced  us  to  put  into  words  the  Christian  hope  of 
a  better  social  order. 

"It  was  natural  perhaps  when  the  war  was  over  that 
the  world  should  relapse  into  a  cynicism  of  burnt  out 
emotion  and  weariness,  but  it  was  not  natural  for  the 
ministers  of  Christ  to  forget  the  vision  that  was  bought 
with  the  blood  of  thirty  million  brothers  or  more.  We 
all  knew  what  God  meant  by  that  phrase  "a  new 
world"  which  He  forced  on  our  lips  again  and  again. 
Did  the  ministers  of  Christ  forget  it?  Can  we  dotibt 
that  we  did?  There  have  been  some  passionate  ap- 
peals in  the  last  few  years  for  a  gospel  of  reconcilia- 
tion and  love,  but  the  pulpit  has  not  spoken  them.  We 
have  echoed  men's  fears,  fears  of  Bolshevism,  fears  of 
class  conflict,  fears  for  national  safety.  Fear  never 
proclaimed  a  gospel.  What  did  we  love?  Clear  as  a 
flaming  beacon  it  is  written  in  the  gospels  what  we 
ought  to  love.  Since  the  war  there  has  been  given  to 
the  church  the  most  romantic  and  chivalrous  adven- 
ture for  hum'anity  that  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  men. 
What  seared  the  romance  in  our  hearts?  Who  have 
been  talking  loudest  in  the  last  two  years?     People 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     179 

who  are  afraid.  In  the  Babel  of  merchants'  associa- 
tions, national  civic  federations,  patriotic  societies,  not 
a  whisper  has  been  heard  that  sounded  like  St.  Francis 
or  Loyola.  Those  who  should  have  uttered  the  beati- 
tudes were  dumb." 

These  are  searching  and  severe  criticisms.  Perhaps 
some  may  say  too  severe,  even  exaggerated  and  un- 
just. But  let  us  remember  they  come  fro^m  the  house 
of  our  friends.  They  are  uttered  by  followers  of  our 
own  vocation,  and  we  must  admit  that  there  is  ample 
ground  for  them,  at  least  they  voice  the  challenge 
of  our  times  to  our  prophetic  ministry.  Let  us  answer 
that  challenge  in  the  spirit  of  those  great  words  spoken 
by  an  old  apostle  to  his  young  disciple,  words,  it 
seems  to  me,  that  ought  to  be  solemnly  repeated  at 
every  ordination  today  as  a  charge  to  the  new  min- 
ister : 

"Wherefore  I  put  thee  in  rememberance  that  thou 
stir  up  the  gift  which  is  in  thee  by  the  putting  on  of 
my  hands.  For  God  hath  not  given  us  the  spirit  of 
fear,  but  of  power  and  of  love  and  of  a  sound  mind." 

A  ministry  of  power, — fthat  is  the  first  need  of  a  day 
of  almost  universal  fear  and  cowardly  subservience 
thereto,  a  ministry  endowed  with  the  courage  and 
fearlessness  that  come  only  from  faith,  the  conviction 
that  one  has  a  burden  of  the  Lord,  a  word  of  God,  a 
"Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  laid  upon  his  lips  like  the  live 
coal  off  the  altar,  a  Divine  message  that  burns  in  his 
bones  like  fire  and  will  not  let  him  stay  till  it  be  uttered, 
and  that  God  Himself  is  behind  His  Word  and  will  not 
let  it  fail.  That  is  the  prophet's  fundamental  motive 
and  dynamic. 

But  also  a  ministry  of  love, — not  the  censorious 
carping  of  the  detached  critic,  nor  the  fulminating 
thunders  of  the  isolated  herald  and  lord  high  execu- 


180         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

tioner  of  the  Divine  wrath,  anticipating  with  grim 
satisfaction  the  doom  and  destruction  he  announces 
and  perhaps  like  Jonah  sulking  when  they  fall  not, 
because  his  sermons  have  been  too  effective  and  the 
people  have  repented. 

But  let  us  ever  deliver  our  prophetic  message  in  that 
spirit  of  love  which"  is  compassion  and  sympathy  in 
the  literal  sense  of  those  words,  the  chief  character- 
istic of  our  Champion  and  Companion  God  who  "in 
all  our  affliction  is  Himself  afflicted"  and  fights  our 
battles  not  simply  as  our  leader  but  as  our  comrade  in 
the  ranks — ^ay,  with  the  mind  and  spirit  of  the  Redeem- 
er and  Saviour  who  so  identified  Himself  with  all 
humanity  as  Son  of  man,  that  He  literally  carried  our 
sorrows  and  bore  our  sins  until  they  broke  His  heart. 
Let  us  speak  our  "truth  in  that  love"  which  "suffereth 
long  and  is  kind,  which  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all 
things,  hopeth  all  things".  And  if  the  truth  brings 
us  persecution  and  even  the  cross  as  it  brought  Him, 
let  us  face  it  as  He  did,  saying,  "Thy  will  be  done." 
But  often  as  I  see  it,  it  is  the  manner  of  our  delivery 
and  not  the  matter  of  our  message  that  brings  us 
hatred  and  antagonism.  It  is  not  the  truth  but  the 
lack  of  love  in  its  utterance  that  provokes  and  irritates. 
Many  that  imagine  that  they  are  persecuted  for  right- 
eousness' sake  are  simply  persecuted  for  their  own  sakes 
because  they  are  what  they  are,  egotistical,  intoler- 
ant, without  understanding  or  sympathy,  simply  ugly 
in  temper  and  disposition. 

And  lastly,  the  endowment  of  a  sound  mind, — how 
much  it  is  needed,  how  absolutely  essential  it  is  in  a 
prophetic  ministry  today, — the  capacity  for  clear, 
straight,  strong  thinking,  the  wide  horizons  of  knowl- 
edge and  backgrounds  of  information,  the  calm  con- 
trolling reason  and  well-poised  and  balanced  judgment, 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     181 

not  "to  quench  the  spirit  and  ardor  of  prophecy,"  but  to 
give  them  right  direction  and  effective  application.  The 
world  is  full  of  half-baked  enthusiasts  and  one-sided 
fanatics,  long-haired  men  and  short-haired  women, 
who  have  brought  the  whole  race  of  prophets  into 
disrepute  and  contempt. 

In  that  spirit  of  power  and  of  love  and  of  a  sound 
mind,  we  must  "make  full  proof  of  our  ministry"  today. 

We  must  neglect  none  of  its  manifold  aspects.  It 
must  be  an  individual  ministry — in  its  preaching,  labor- 
ing "for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints  as  well  as  the  con- 
version of  sinners"  and  for  "the  edification  of  the  body 
of  Christ  till  we  all  and  each  come  unto  the  perfect 
manhood  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness 
of  Christ;"  in  its  pastoral  faithfulness  counselling  the 
perplexed,  comforting  the  sorrowing,  and  bringing  the 
peace  of  pardon  and  fellowship  with  God  to  the  penitent; 
in  its  priestly  ministrations,  bringing  the  real,  vital, 
quickening  sense  of  God's  presence  and  power  into  men's 
lives  by  sacraments  and  means  of  grace,  and  Hfting  their 
souls  on  the  wings  of  prayer  and  praise  and  adoration 
through  the  neglected  art  and  practice  of  worship. 

But  above  all  we  need  today  the  wide  horizon  of  pro- 
phetic vision,  the  insistent,  uncompromising,  unmitigated 
assertion  of  the  Divine  right  of  our  Master  to  universal 
sovereignty,  that  "the  Kingdoms  of  the  world  must  be- 
come the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  His  Christ,"  that 
there  is  and  can  be  no  domain  of  politics,  national  or  in- 
ternational, industry,  commerce,  business  or  society 
outside  of  His  jurisdiction,  where  His  laws  will  not 
run,  that  there  is  no  aspect  of  life  and  no  relationship 
of  m-en  to  which  His  principles  cannot  or  must  not 
apply. 

In  that  spirit  we  can  stand  before  governors  and  kings, 
even  the  governors  and  kings  of  our  present  "invisible 


182         The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today 

government"  and  rebuke  and  exhort  with  all  boldness 
and  long  suffering. 

In  that  spirit  we  can  proclaim  alike  to  the  trembling 
and  fearful,  the  passionate  and  embittered,  the  sodden 
and  hopeless,  in  this  day  of  disillusionment,  "Behold, 
we  bring  you  good  tidings  of  great  joy  which  shall  be  to 
you  and  to  all  people."  We  have  a  gospel;  it  is  the 
gospel  of  God  and  His  Kingdom  of  Heaven  upon  earth. 
We  can  say  to  the  disheartened  reformer  and  the  despair- 
ing idealist,  "Your  essential  cause  is  the  cause  of  God, 
and  therefore  it  cannot  fail.  Your  struggle  is  but  a 
skirmish  in  His  eternal  warfare,  and  while  He  may  ap- 
parently lose  a  battle  here  and  there.  He  cannot  and 
will  not  lose  the  campaign.  Your  goal  is  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  on  earth  and  it  shines  sure  and  certain  on 
the  farther  horizons.  The  new  Jerusalem,  the  heavenly 
city,  it  shall  come  down  from  God  out  of  heaven  and 
take  possession  of  the  earth." 

So  shall  we  send  them  back  to  their  task  and  their 
battle  with  an  unconquerable  and  all  conquering  faith,  an 
invincible  and  victorious  hope. 

It  is  only  such  a  gospel  that  can  adequately  inspire  and 
continuously  sustain  the  aspirations  and  endeavors  of 
men  of  good  will  in  these  days  of  darkness  and  gloom. 
For  "this  and  this  only  is  the  victory  that  overcometh 
the  world,  even  our  faith."  And  it  is  your  high  privilege 
to  proclaim  that  Gospel  and  inspire  that  faith  without 
which  there  can  be  no  salvation  for  the  soul  or  society, 
but  with  which  the  ultimate  triumph  of  truth  and  right- 
eousness is  as  sure  as  that  God  is  in  His  heaven. 

It  is  a  perilous  day  in  which  you  go  forth  into  your 
prophetic  ministry,  my  younger  brethren,  this  day  of  dis- 
illusionment. There  are  lions  in  the  way.  There  are 
difficulties  and  dangers  and  demands  everywhere  that  will 
test  you  through  and   through.     But  these   difficulties. 


The  Gospel  for  a  Day  of  Disillusionment     183 

dangers  and  demands  are  so  many  challenges  and  oppor- 
tunities which  make  it  the  most  glorious  day  in  which 
men  could  be  called  to  that  ministry.  Marcus  Dodds 
said  once,  "I  do  not  envy  those  who  have  to  fight  the 
battle  of  Christianity  in  the  20th  century.  Yes,  perhaps  I 
do,  but  it  will  be  a  stiff  fight."  And  let  me  add,  a  stiff 
fight  is  what  the  true  soldier  of  Christ  loves. 

God  give  you  vision  that  you  may  "both  perceive  and 
know  what  things  you  ought  to  do  and  also  grace  and 
power  faithfully  to  fulfill  the  same." 


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